‘Rust’ Armorer Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who served as the armorer on the film Rust, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter. Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty at a jury trial in Santa Fe, New Mexico in early March of this year.

Gutierrez-Reed’s conviction stems from an incident on the set of the independent Western movie Rust. On October 21, 2021, during the filming of an action scene, a gun held by Rust producer and star Alec Baldwin fired a bullet that struck the movie’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, and its director, Joel Souza. While Souza survived, Hutchins died of her injuries. As armorer, Gutierrez-Reed was responsible for the weapons on the Rust set. She has said publicly that she does not know where the live round that killed Hutchins and injured Souza came from.

Baldwin was first charged with involuntary manslaughter in early 2023. While that charge was later dropped, Baldwin was then charged a second time in early 2024. This second charge was made by new prosecutors in the case, who were brought in after first lawyer appointed by the Santa Fe county district attorney stepped down.

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18 months is the maximum sentence for involuntary manslaughter under New Mexico law. Gutierrez-Reed had asked for probation rather than a prison sentence.

The judge in Gutierrez-Reed’s case, Mary Marlowe Sommer, said that her sentence was due in part to her perception that Gutierrez-Reed had not adequately expressed remorse for her role in Hutchins’ death.

“I did not hear you take accountability in your allocution. You said you were sorry, but not (that) you were sorry for what you did,” Judge Sommer said.

Baldwin has pled not guilty to the charges in his legal case; his trial is expected to begin in New Mexico later this summer. He has continued to maintain that he did not pull the trigger of the gun that killed Hutchins. (In August, a forensics expert filed a report that claimed Baldwin “must have pulled the trigger” of the gun.) An assistant director on Rust has already pled guilty to a misdemeanor.

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