CNN
—
Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the “Rust” movie armorer who was discovered responsible of involuntary manslaughter final month for the 2021 on-set deadly taking pictures of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, is scheduled to be sentenced Monday morning in a New Mexico courtroom.
Hutchins was killed by a dwell spherical of ammunition fired from a prop gun held by actor Alec Baldwin on October 21, 2021. The movie’s director was additionally injured within the taking pictures.
Gutierrez Reed, who was liable for firearm security and storage on set, turned the primary individual to face trial and be convicted within the case, which has captured nationwide consideration for greater than two years. She now faces as much as 18 months in jail and a $5,000 wonderful. Prosecutors have requested she be sentenced to the utmost jail time, citing a “full and complete failure to just accept duty for her actions,” whereas the protection has requested she be launched on probation, arguing she has no prior prison historical past and has a “file of prior good works and constructive issues.”
Jurors returned the responsible verdict March 6 after listening to from greater than 30 witnesses and deliberating for almost three hours, discovering the actions of Gutierrez Reed – who prosecutors argued repeatedly violated security protocol and acted with out warning in performing her duties – in the end led to Hutchins’ dying. The previous armorer has been in custody since her conviction. Her protection lawyer Jason Bowles advised CNN they plan to enchantment.
Bowles maintains his 26-year-old consumer has been scapegoated for the security failures of movie set administration and different crew members.
In a sentencing memo dated April 10, Gutierrez Reed’s protection staff requested she be launched on probation with situations set by the decide and endure counseling and rehabilitative efforts. She has confronted “far harsher” penalties than different defendants, her attorneys stated within the memo, due to the media protection, which has led to dying threats and should impression her life and job prospects sooner or later.
She feels “extremely saddened and coronary heart damaged by what occurred on that tragic day on the Rust set,” the memo stated. Particular prosecutor Kari Morrissey didn’t touch upon the protection memo when reached by CNN.
In an April 12 court docket submitting responding to the protection memo, Morrissey and particular prosecutor Jason Lewis requested Gutierrez Reed be sentenced to 18 months in jail, arguing she “continues to disclaim duty and blame others,” together with the set medic and paramedics who tried to save lots of Hutchins. Prosecutors additionally cited jail calls through which Gutierrez Reed allegedly complained “concerning the detrimental impacts this incident has had on her life” and known as jurors derogatory names. CNN has reached out to her lawyer for remark.
Gutierrez Reed was acquitted through the trial of a separate cost of proof tampering, which was introduced after prosecutors alleged she transferred a “small bag of cocaine” to another person following a police interview after the taking pictures.
Baldwin, who has additionally been charged with involuntary manslaughter, is predicted to face trial in July. He has pleaded not responsible and has maintained he didn’t pull the firearm’s set off. A decide is currently considering a motion filed by Baldwin’s authorized staff to dismiss his indictment, citing alleged impropriety by the federal government – a movement prosecutors vehemently slammed in a rebuttal submitting of their very own.
The deadly taking pictures occurred throughout a break within the filming of the Western film “Rust” on the Bonanza Creek Ranch exterior of Santa Fe.
Baldwin had been training for a scene and was drawing and pointing a revolver with steerage from Hutchins and Joel Souza, the movie’s director, in keeping with a 2023 possible trigger assertion.
Baldwin drew the revolver, pointed it at Hutchins and fired the weapon shortly earlier than 2 p.m., hanging her within the chest and injuring Souza, prosecutors stated within the possible trigger assertion. Hutchins was pronounced useless simply after 3:30 p.m.
Within the trial, prosecutors alleged Gutierrez Reed repeatedly violated security protocols and uncared for her duties main as much as the taking pictures, together with failing to carry out security checks on the prop weapon and the ammunition she loaded it with, handing it to a workers member who shouldn’t have been dealing with weapons on set after which departing from the realm when Baldwin in the end fired the deadly spherical.
“This isn’t a case the place Hannah Gutierrez made one mistake and that one mistake was by chance placing a dwell spherical into that gun,” Morrissey stated throughout closing arguments. “This case is about fixed, endless security failures that resulted within the dying of a human being and almost killed one other.”
Morrissey stated Gutierrez Reed’s repeated failures allowed six dwell rounds to make their manner onto the set and stated she didn’t conduct security checks that will have caught them.
“She had six, six dwell rounds on that film set, the earliest date that I can monitor them for you is October 10, (2021),” the prosecutor stated. “Six, and he or she didn’t ferret them out for 12 days. What which means is that she wasn’t shaking any dummy rounds, she wasn’t testing something.”
“Dummy” rounds consult with ammunition that comprises no explosive parts however seems as if it was an actual bullet when fired.
“If she’s not checking the dummy ammunition through the pendency of the filming to guarantee that these rounds which are designed to seem like dwell rounds are in reality dummy rounds, this was a recreation of Russian roulette each time an actor had a gun with dummies,” Morrissey added.
Bowles, the protection lawyer, positioned the blame elsewhere. He questioned how the dwell ammunition made it on set and alleged the manufacturing staff created a chaotic and unsafe setting that put Gutierrez Reed below “actually robust situations to maintain up with.” And, Baldwin didn’t comply with commonsense gun security guidelines on set when he dealt with the firearm and acted unpredictably when he pointed the weapon at Hutchins, Bowles stated in his closing statements.
“(Gutierrez Reed) couldn’t anticipate what Baldwin would do. It was not within the script, it was not foreseeable,” he stated. “Administration was liable for security failures and never Hannah.”
Through the armorer’s trial, assistant movie director David Halls admitted he was “negligent” in checking the gun and didn’t correctly look by way of all of the rounds within the gun’s chamber when Gutierrez Reed introduced it to him.
“She opened up the latch to the revolver, I recall seeing three to 4, what I believed to be dummy rounds,” Halls testified. He later added: “I don’t recall her absolutely rotating the cylinder.”
Halls would go on to yell “chilly gun” earlier than the weapon was handed to Baldwin, a comment meant to point the firearm didn’t have dwell rounds, in keeping with a court docket doc. Halls took a plea deal in 2023 for his position within the taking pictures, pleading no contest to 1 rely of negligent use of a lethal weapon.
He was sentenced to 6 months of unsupervised probation, a $500 wonderful, needed to take part in a firearms security class, full 24 hours of group service and never use medicine or alcohol.