Gun supervisor for ‘Rust’ movie gets 18 months in prison for fatal shooting by Alec Baldwin on set

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, centre, sits with her attorney Jason Bowles and paralegal Carmella Sisneros during her sentencing hearing in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photo / AP

A movie weapons supervisor was sentenced to 18 months in prison in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western film Rust, during a hearing in which tearful family members and friends gave testimonials that included calls for justice and a punishment that would instil greater accountability for safety on film sets.

Movie armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was convicted in March by a jury on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and has been held for more than a month at a county jail on the outskirts of Santa Fe. Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of Rust, where it was expressly prohibited, and for failing to follow basic gun safety protocols.

Gutierrez-Reed was unsuccessful in her plea for a lesser sentencing, telling the judge she was not the monster that people have made her out to be and that she had tried to do her best on the set despite not having “proper time, resources and staffing”.

Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer for Rust, was pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal on a movie set outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, centre, sits with her attorney Jason Bowles and paralegal Carmella Sisneros during her sentencing hearing in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photo / AP

Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to a charge of involuntary manslaughter. He is scheduled for trial in July at a courthouse in Santa Fe.

The sentence against Gutierrez-Reed was delivered by New Mexico Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, who is overseeing proceedings against Baldwin. The judge said anything less than the maximum sentence would not be appropriate given that Gutierrez-Reed’s recklessness amounted to a serious violent offence.

“You were the armourer, the one that stood between a safe weapon and a weapon that could kill someone,” the judge told Gutierrez-Reed. “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.”

Gutierrez-Reed teared up as Hutchins’ agent, Craig Mizrahi, spoke about the cinematographer’s creativity and described her as a rising star in Hollywood. He said it was a chain of events that led to Hutchins’ death and that if the armourer had been doing her job, that chain would have been broken.

Friends and family recalled Hutchins as courageous, tenacious and compassionate - a “bright beam of light” who could have gone on to accomplish great things within the film industry.

The set of Rust where the shooting occurred. Photo / AP

“I really feel that this was due to negligence,” Steven Metz, a close friend, testified. “This case needs to set a precedent for all the other actors, and cinematographers and everyone on set whose lives are at risk when we have negligence in the hands of an armourer, a supposed armourer.”

Los Angeles-based attorney Gloria Allred read a statement by Hutchins’ mother, Olga Solovey, who said her life had been split in two and that time didn’t heal, rather it only prolonged her pain and suffering. A video of a tearful Solovey, who lives in Ukraine, also was played for the court.

“It’s the hardest thing to lose a child. There’s no words to describe,” Solovey said in her native language.

The Ukrainian relatives of Hutchins are seeking damages in her death from Baldwin in connection with the shooting. Allred said after the hearing that the family supports his criminal prosecution.