The armorer in charge of the prop guns and ammunition on the set of the movie Rust has been sentenced to 18 months in a state prison for the incident in which actor Alec Baldwin shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins with a prop gun in October 2021.
A New Mexico jury had found 25-year-old Hanna Gutierrez-Reed guilty of involuntary manslaughter back in early March. And on Monday, a judge handed down the maximum sentence to Gutierrez-Reed, citing her lack of remorse as one reason for that penalty.
“Your attorney had to tell the court you were remorseful,” the judge said at the sentencing, later adding, “You were the armorer who stood between a safe weapon and a weapon that could kill someone. But for you, she would be alive.”
The March verdict was reached after only a few hours of deliberation, and Gutierrez-Reed was immediately taken into custody. Afterward her attorney promised an appeal in the case. Gutierrez-Reed was also found not guilty on an evidence tampering charge for allegedly passing off a bag of cocaine the day of the fatal set shooting.
After Monday’s verdict, the special prosecutor in charge told Fox News that prosecutors “respect the judge’s decision.
“It’s been a difficult case,” Kari T. Morrissey said. “But taking responsibility I think is critical in the criminal justice system and that was something that unfortunately was lacking from Miss Gutierrez.”
According to the Fox report, “In recorded jail phone conversations with her mother, boyfriend and her attorney’s paralegal, Gutierrez-Reed called jurors ‘idiots’ and ‘a—holes’ while complaining about the length of time it took them to deliberate, according to a recent filing by prosecutors. Also in the phone calls, she said that she would not testify in Baldwin’s upcoming criminal trial if subpoenaed and that she wants him to go to jail, too.
During the trial, prosecutors acknowledged that Alec Baldwin, who actually fired the shot that killed Hutchins, had a history of poor gun handling on set. But, they said, that didn’t absolve the armorer’s part in the tragedy.
“Hannah Gutierrez knew that Baldwin was loose. She knew it,” Morrissey told the jury. “She didn’t do anything about it, even though it was her job. It was her job. It is her job to say to an A-list actor, if in fact, that’s what you want to call him, ‘Hey, you can’t behave that way with those firearms.’ That is her job. That is what they pay her for. That is the job that she applied for. That is the job that she accepted.”
Baldwin, who pulled the trigger on the live round while pointing the gun at Hutchins, has also been charged with involuntary manslaughter and is accused of causing Hutchins’s death either by negligence or “total disregard or indifference” for safety. He has pleaded not guilty, and his trial will begin in July.
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