‘Rust’ Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed Is Sentenced for Involuntary Manslaughter

The armorer on the movie “Rust,” who loaded a dwell spherical right into a revolver that went off on the set in 2021 and killed its cinematographer, was sentenced on Monday to 18 months in jail for involuntary manslaughter.

The sentence was the utmost that the armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, might obtain.

In her manslaughter trial last month, prosecutors argued that Ms. Gutierrez-Reed had been repeatedly reckless in her job of managing weapons and ammunition, instantly inflicting the tragedy on Oct. 21, 2021, when the gun that Alec Baldwin was practising drawing from his shoulder holster fired a dwell bullet, killing the cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins.

Mr. Baldwin has pleaded not responsible to an involuntary manslaughter cost. His trial is scheduled for July, although a choose is at present weighing a motion from his defense to dismiss the indictment.

The sentencing by Choose Mary Marlowe Sommer got here after prosecutors launched summaries of calls that Ms. Gutierrez-Reed had made out of jail, the place she was despatched after her conviction.

Prosecutors used the calls, throughout which Ms. Gutierrez-Reed calls the jurors in her case “idiots,” to argue that she ought to obtain the best doable sentence. The decision summaries embody Ms. Gutierrez-Reed saying that the choose was on a “power trip” and alleging, with out proof, that the choose was “getting paid off.”

Choose Marlowe Sommer mentioned through the listening to that giving Ms. Gutierrez-Reed lower than the complete sentence can be a “pass” that she didn’t deserve, citing the jail calls as proof of an absence of regret.

“You were the armorer, the one that stood between a safe weapon and a weapon that could kill someone,” the choose mentioned. “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.”

Earlier than the sentence was introduced, Ms. Gutierrez-Reed, 26, pleaded for leniency, saying that when she took the “Rust” job she was “young and I was naïve, but I took my job as seriously as I knew how to.”

“Despite not having proper time, resources and staffing when things got tough I just did my best to handle it,” Ms. Gutierrez-Reed mentioned in courtroom, studying from a press release, her wrists shackled. “The jury has found me in part at fault for this God-awful tragedy but that doesn’t make me a monster, that makes me human.”

Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys have mentioned that they may enchantment her conviction and argued for leniency on the sentencing listening to, saying that the defendant had deep disappointment over Ms. Hutchins’s demise. They mentioned that the overwhelming public consideration on the case meant she needed to endure “collateral consequences far harsher than most defendants ever must face,” citing the deluge of press protection and demise threats she has obtained.

The protection argued all through the trial that Ms. Gutierrez-Reed was being scapegoated for a tragedy that occurred as a result of the manufacturing didn’t afford her sufficient time to deal with weapons, one thing that a number of producers denied all through the trial.

In courtroom papers, prosecutors detailed jail calls by which Ms. Gutierrez-Reed contended that she “didn’t need to be shaking the dummies all the time,” referring to a security measure by which weapons specialists shake inert cartridges, known as dummy rounds, to listen to a rattle inside, which signifies that the spherical can not fireplace from the gun. On the day of the taking pictures, Ms. Gutierrez-Reed was alleged to have loaded six dummy rounds in Mr. Baldwin’s revolver, however one ended up being dwell.

“Every time a gun was loaded with ‘dummy’ rounds, it was a game of Russian roulette,” the lead prosecutor, Kari T. Morrissey, wrote in a courtroom submitting forward of the sentencing.

In a separate name, prosecutors mentioned, Ms. Gutierrez-Reed mentioned she was attempting to get her lawyer’s paralegal to achieve out to Ms. Hutchins’s household about talking on her behalf on the sentencing listening to. She additionally mentioned she needs prosecutors to “put Alec Baldwin in jail.”

“It was my sincere hope during this process that there would be some moment when Ms. Gutierrez took responsibility, expressed some level of remorse that was genuine, and that moment has never come,” Ms. Morrissey mentioned through the listening to.

Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys wrote in courtroom papers that these jail calls, which they characterised as displaying “frustration at the system,” didn’t detract from her “heartbreak and extreme sadness over what occurred on the ‘Rust’ set.”

On the sentencing listening to, Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s stepfather, Thell Reed, a distinguished Hollywood armorer who she mentioned had taught her find out how to do the job, gave testimony on her behalf, telling the choose that it will be unjust to offer her jail time as a result of others have been partially answerable for the tragedy.

The armorer’s conviction was the primary time anybody had been held criminally accountable at a jury trial for the demise of Ms. Hutchins.

The main target of prosecutors has now largely shifted to Mr. Baldwin, who was indicted this year on an involuntary manslaughter cost. Prosecutors have accused him of negligently failing to verify the gun he was handed that day was not loaded with dwell ammunition. He has vehemently denied duty, saying that he had been instructed the gun didn’t comprise dwell ammunition and that he ought to be capable to depend on professionals on set who have been employed to supervise weapons and security.

Throughout Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s two-week trial, prosecutors mentioned she ought to be held criminally answerable for Ms. Hutchins’s demise due to a collection of significant security violations that they argued had primed the manufacturing for catastrophe. They accused her of bringing dwell rounds onto the set, of not correctly checking the ammunition that she loaded into weapons and gun belts, and of standing by as members of the manufacturing, together with one of many stunt performers, dealt with weapons towards security protocols.

In a separate case, Ms. Gutierrez-Reed is going through a cost of illegal carrying of a firearm in a licensed liquor institution. Prosecutors say {that a} video on her cellphone they found through the manslaughter case reveals Ms. Gutierrez-Reed sneaking a pistol right into a bar in New Mexico. She has pleaded not responsible.

Earlier than the choose handed down the armorer’s sentence, she heard testimony from members of the family, associates and colleagues of Ms. Hutchins who talked about her ambition and imaginative and prescient as a cinematographer and her dedication as a mom, with one pal, Jen White, telling the choose, “I feel like she has gotten lost in the swarm of all the finger-pointing and blame in the aftermath of this completely preventable tragedy.”

Joel Souza, the director of “Rust,” who was injured when the bullet handed by way of Ms. Hutchins and hit him, testified that Ms. Hutchins, who would have turned 45 years previous final week, “not only had an incredible talent for her art, but she had a talent for life.”

And Emilia Mendieta, a pal and cinematographer, recalled Ms. Hutchins’s pleasure to start filming a western, recounting a cellphone name shortly earlier than “Rust” started by which she defined that the film “has horses and gunfights and we’re shooting out in the desert” and that “it’s a huge steppingstone” in her profession.

“I often think about that moment,” Mendieta mentioned. “Her excitement, her joy at embarking on this new adventure.”