Featured Image Credit: Eddie Moore-Pool/Getty Images / Jim Weber - Pool/Getty Images
Topics: US News, Crime, Alec Baldwin, Film and TV
Emily Brown
Topics: US News, Crime, Alec Baldwin, Film and TV
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer from the set of the film Rust, has been sentenced after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter last month.
Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty of manslaughter following her role in the death of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer on the set of the film who was accidentally shot by Alec Baldwin.
Baldwin was pointing a prop gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal in late 2021 when the gun fired, killing Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.
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The armorer was responsible for ensuring the safety of any weapons on the set of the film and was found to be negligible in her preparation of the gun that killed Hutchins.
Prosecutors in the case have alleged that Gutierrez-Reed loaded a revolver with one live round, as well as dummy rounds.
The revolver fired by Baldwin was fully functional.
The sentencing which took place earlier today (15 April), saw Gutierrez-Reed handed the maximum term of 18 months in prison.
Santa Fe judge Mary Sommer said: “I find that what you did constitutes a serious violent offence, it was committed in a physically violent manner. A fatal gunshot done with your recklessness in the face of knowledge that your acts were reasonably likely to result in serious harm.
“You were the armourer, the one that stood between a safe weapon and a weapon that could kill someone.
"[...] You alone turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon. But for you, Ms. Hutchins would be alive, a husband would have his partner, and a little boy would have his mother."
Baldwin will also face a trial for involuntary manslaughter in July, having pled not guilty.
It is alleged that Baldwin, who was also a producer on the film, was negligent and showed ‘total disregard or indifference for safety’, which led to the death of the film’s cinematographer.
Prosecutors argued throughout Gutierrez-Reed’s trial that the armorer was ‘sloppy’, alleging that live rounds of ammunition brought from her home were found on the set.
Kari Morrissey, speaking on behalf of the prosecution, said in the trial’s closing statement: "She was negligent, she was careless, she was thoughtless."
She went on to state that Gutierrez-Reed showed an ‘astounding lack of diligence’.
A jury found Gutierrez-Reed guilty of manslaughter after a two-week trial that concluded last month.
Following the trial, the 27-year-old was blasted by the prosecution for phone calls recorded from jail in which she blasted the jury and judge, claiming she was ‘railroaded’.
She called the jury in the case ‘idiots’, said that the judge was ‘paid off’, stating she had ‘already been punished for this’.
Ms. Morrissey argued that these calls demonstrated a lack of remorse, and asked that she be sentenced to the maximum of 18 months she could possible receive for this crime.
This adds to further recent controversy surrounding Gutierrez-Reed’s conduct, with a GoFundMe page being shut down by the crowdfunding website.
Her father had set up a crowdfund to help pay the costs of an appeal, saying: “It’s quite transparent, the judicial scales in Hannah’s case are unfair and unbalanced. Justice for Halyna does not mean injustice for Hannah.”
The GoFundMe was shut down due to a policy that ‘bars fundraising for legal defense against charges related to violent crimes.’