Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was sentenced to 18 months in prison after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the accidental shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty in the on-set accident in March and was ordered to remain at the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Facility while awaiting the results of her appeal, which the judge denied. Gutierrez-Reed faced a maximum sentence of 18 months behind bars in addition to probation and fines.
In handing down the maximum sentence, as Variety reports, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said Gutierrez-Reed had not shown any remorse and foisted on her much of the blame for Hutchins’ death.
“You alone turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon,” Sommer said. “But for you, Ms. Hutchins would be alive, a husband would have his partner, and a little boy would have his mother.”
Before the sentencing, the court also heard statements from Hutchins’ family, as well as Rust director Joel Souza, who was hit in the shoulder during the shooting incident. Hutchins’ mother, who shared a pre-recorded video from her home in Ukraine, said, “The day of her death ruined my entire life. It’s heart-wrenching to see her child grow without his mother.”
Souza added: “What I want is simply not possible. I want that none of this ever happened, that everyone is OK, that lives weren’t destroyed. One moment, the world made sense. The next moment, it didn’t, and it still doesn’t, and I don’t know if it ever will again.”
A lawyer for Gutierrez-Reed did not immediately return a request for comment.
After a 10-day trial, it took the jury just over two hours to return the guilty verdict, though they did acquit Gutierrez-Reed on a separate charge of tampering with evidence. Judge Mary Marlow Sommer said at the time, “This is a death. It’s criminal negligence, but it’s still a death.”
In a statement shared with Rolling Stone after the conviction, Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyer Jason Bowles said of the upcoming sentencing, “We are confident that the Court will consider everything, including all of the mitigating evidence, and enter a judgment that is reasonable and just.”
Gutierrez-Reed is the second person to be held accountable in the Oct. 21, 2021, on-set accident where cinematographer Hutchins was shot and killed by the prop gun actor Alec Baldwin was using. The film’s assistant director, David Halls, secured a plea deal with prosecutors, pleading no contest to a misdemeanor count of negligent handling of a gun. He served six months of probation.
Baldwin, who pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter back in January, faces a tentative trial start date of July 10. Baldwin previously pleaded not guilty to the same charges in February 2023, and the case was ultimately dismissed two months later. However, after new prosecutors re-indicted Baldwin this past January, his attorneys sought the dismissal of the charges in March.
