“Rust Armorer sentenced to 18 months in prison for manslaughter

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the Rust The gunsmith who loaded the live bullet into the gun Alec Baldwin was holding when she shot and killed the film's cinematographer will serve an 18-month prison sentence for manslaughter.

Santa Fe Judge Mary Sommer's ruling Monday comes after a jury found Gutierrez-Reed guilty, making her the first crew member to be convicted for her role in the accidental death by Halyna Hutchins ball.

In New Mexico, manslaughter charges carry a maximum sentence of 18 months and a fine of up to $5,000. Prosecutors asked for the upper limit on the term. Gutierrez-Reed has been held at the Santa Fe Adult Detention Center since March, when she was found responsible for involuntary manslaughter, but not on tampering with evidence charges. Last month, Sommer refused to allow a new trial and denied a motion to release the gunsmith while she appealed her conviction.

During the hearing, Sommer spoke about the lack of remorse Gutierrez-Reed expressed following the monitored phone calls as she awaited sentencing.

“In her own words, she said she didn’t need to shake models all the time,” Sommer said. She emphasized, “You were the gunsmith, the one who stood between a safe weapon and a weapon that could kill someone. You alone have transformed a safe weapon into a deadly weapon. Without you, Mrs. Hutchins would be alive, a husband would have his partner, and a little boy would have his mother.

Before sentencing, Gutierrez-Reed, 26, asked to receive probation rather than serve prison time. She went to court.

“Above all, my heart aches for Hutchins' family and friends, as well as his colleagues, since this tragedy occurred,” she said, adding that she was “young and naive” when she accepted the position of gunsmith, but that she “accepted my position seriously because I knew how to do it” despite “the lack of time, resources and personnel”. The gunsmith concluded: “The jury found me partly responsible for this horrible tragedy, but that doesn't make me a monster, it makes me human.”

During the hearing, lead prosecutor Kari Morrissey urged the judge to hand down the highest sentence allowed for the “cascade of violations” that led to Hutchins' death. She said Gutierrez-Reed “continues to refuse to accept responsibility for his role,” citing nearly 200 calls monitored by the prosecution after his arrest.

“Rather than accept responsibility, she chose to place the blame on the witnesses who testified against her, me, you, the jury, the on-set doctor and the paramedics who tried to save Ms. Hutchins’ life.” , Morrissey said. She proposed designating the gunsmith as a “serious violent offender” to limit his eligibility for a reduced sentence.

Sommer said Gutierrez-Reed indicated in those calls that the gunsmith largely viewed the accusation as an “attack on her” and that she was “dismissive” of her role in the shooting. Gutierrez-Reed also allegedly said, without evidence, that the judge “was getting paid.”

Gutierrez-Reed could have been sentenced to 12 months in prison at the Santa Fe Adult Detention Center, after which she would serve probation for the remainder of her sentence. Sommer chose to impose the maximum sentence allowed.

Craig Mizrahi, Hutchins' agent at Innovative Artists, also spoke at the sentencing, accusing the producers of cutting corners on security and hiring an inexperienced gunsmith in Gutierrez-Reed, who he said, should have refused the job. He added that the shooting “was not a simple accident” but a “chain of events leading to someone's death”, which could have been “broken if the gunsmith had done the job for which she was had been hired.

Director Joel Souza, who was injured in the shooting, attributed the incident to “Ms. Reed's failures that day.

Additionally, relatives and acquaintances of the gunsmith spoke about the impact Hutchins had on their lives, pleading for the court to impose the maximum prison term. “I don’t want this to be seen as an unpunished accident,” said Olga Solovey, Hutchins’ sister, speaking via pre-recorded video from Ukraine.

Gloria Allred, who represents Hutchins' parents and sister in a lawsuit against Rust Movie Productions, read a statement from the cinematographer's father regarding the “gross and systematic violations of safety regulations during” the filming of Rust.

Several of Hutchins' peers in the film industry said the sentence would send a message to the industry that could prompt improvements to set safety. Amnak Rabanal, Hutchins' friend, said she hopes the decision will serve as a “rallying point for the systemic change needed” to combat neglect in productions, which she said largely consider members of the team as “indispensable cogs in a machine”.

Jen White, another friend of the cinematographer, said Gutierrez-Reed was the “catalyst” for the widespread neglect of the low-budget western that led to the accidental filming.

The shooting took place on October 21, 2021, when an old-fashioned revolver Alec Baldwin, who was rehearsing a crossfire, went off while he was practicing drawing the prop firearm. The Colt .45 revolver was handed to him by Deputy Warden David Halls, who said it did not contain live ammunition. While practicing a pulling maneuver, he discharged toward Hutchins, who was killed. Five live cartridges mixed with dummy cartridges were found on set following the incident. It's unclear how they ended up on set, with Gutierrez-Reed refusing a plea deal in exchange for admitting she introduced them.

Before the sentence was handed down, Thell Reed, a veteran gunsmith and father of Gutierrez-Reed, maintained that his daughter had not brought live ammunition onto the set. He blamed ammunition supplier Seth Kenney and prop maker Sarah Zachry.

During the trial, prosecutors argued that Gutierrez-Reed, who argued that she believed she loaded Baldwin's gun with “dummy” cartridges, was negligent in her handling of the firearms and ammunition on the filming of the low-budget western. She was also accused of bringing live ammunition onto set and failing to follow safety protocols.

The defense, meanwhile, revolved around arguments that Gutierrez-Reed was the scapegoat for larger safety issues on set that she couldn't control. Jason Bowles, representing the gunsmith, criticized Baldwin, who was one of more than a dozen producers on the film, among others. She plans to appeal the conviction.

Baldwin faces a trial in which he is charged with manslaughter, which is expected to begin in July. Last week, prosecutors said that in a court filing, Baldwin, a producer of Rust, put others in danger by missing initial firearms training. He arrived on set a week after filming began and underwent a separate session, during which he was “inattentive,” prosecutors alleged. He was also accused of hiring an inexperienced gunsmith in Gutierrez-Reed and pulling the gun's trigger when the scene only required him to remove it from the holster.

“To observe Mr. Baldwin's behavior on the set of Rust It is a man who has absolutely no control over his emotions and who has absolutely no concern about how his conduct affects those around him,” the response to Baldwin's dismissal motion states.

Gutierrez-Reed's sentence may serve as an indication of Baldwin's potential sentence if he is convicted.

“Finding sympathy for Baldwin will not be an easy task for his defense team, although his lawyer will argue that he did not load the gun and will try to downplay his role as producer on the shoot, which the “The accusation will refute,” Kelly Krapf said. a former Illinois appellate lawyer. “After a conviction, prosecutors usually seek the highest sentence, so if a jury finds him guilty, he could be sentenced to 18 months in prison for manslaughter.”

The gunsmith's conviction and punishment can also help establish criminal liability in future cases where negligence results in injury on a production.

Last year, Halls was sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation as part of a plea deal for his role in the shooting. He was charged with a misdemeanor for negligent use of a deadly weapon. His lawyer had argued that he was not responsible for gun monitoring and that his only responsibility was to ensure that safety meetings took place.