The tragedy that unfolded on the set of the film "Rust" in 2021 is set to reach its legal conclusion today as the armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, faces sentencing in a New Mexico state court. Gutierrez-Reed, who was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, may be sentenced to up to 18 months in prison for her role in the incident.
Following a trial last month, Gutierrez-Reed, the former weapons supervisor on the film, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. The 27-year-old could also be fined up to $5,000 in addition to serving prison time. While she was acquitted of a second felony charge for evidence tampering, the court's decision on the manslaughter charge will determine the consequences she will face for her involvement in the preventable tragedy on the "Rust" movie set.
Authorities took Gutierrez-Reed into custody once the verdicts were read. Her defense blamed the film's management for the shooting, arguing that serious safety issues existed on the "Rust" set that were outside of her purview. Her defense attorneys zeroed in on the fact that the movie's primary ammunition supplier had apparently not been investigated.
Gutierrez-Reed, the daughter of an established Hollywood armorer, had previously pleaded not guilty to both charges. After the jury delivered its verdicts on March 6, Gutierrez-Reed's attorney, Jason Bowles, told CBS News that he planned to appeal "a number of issues that occurred in the trial." But subsequent case filings show that the defense's attempts to secure a new trial with her release, and, then, her conditional release, in the aftermath of the conviction were quickly denied by the state.
Prosecutors had throughout the trial painted Gutierrez-Reed as careless and irresponsible, with the aim of convincing jurors that her negligence and "willful disregard" for the safety of others ultimately endangered her "Rust" colleagues and caused Hutchins' death. The state sought the maximum prison sentence for Gutierrez-Reed's manslaughter conviction as prosecutors said she appeared not to display any signs of remorse over the fatal incident in court.
Additional documents filed in the case reference at least one more felony charge related to weapons handling against Gutierrez-Reed in New Mexico, which is still pending, for allegedly "intentionally hiding a firearm from security at a local bar to get the firearm into the bar" after her arrival in the state for filming. Prosecutors said she went on to record a selfie video in the bar restroom boasting about her successful ruse and flashing "a nickel-plated semi-automatic pistol" toward the camera. The state has also accused her of possessing cocaine while working as the firearms expert on "Rust," which is considered a felony, too, in New Mexico.
The allegation involving illegal substance use was presented as evidence during Gutierrez-Reed's trial earlier this year. The trial itself ran slightly over two weeks and mainly centered around the origins of six live bullets that were found on the set of "Rust" as investigators began their probe into the shooting on Oct. 21, 2021. That day, Baldwin was rehearsing a scene for "Rust," to be filmed at some unspecified future time, with Hutchins and Joel Souza, the film's writer and director.
Their rehearsal happened on set at the Bonanza Creek Ranch, a popular filming location for Western movies on the outskirts of Santa Fe, and primarily focused on Baldwin drawing a .45-caliber revolver from a holster, while in character, and pointing the gun in the direction of Hutchins and Souza as they watched the scene unfold from behind a monitor. On one draw, the weapon fired and discharged live bullets, one of which passed through Hutchins before striking Souza. Hutchins was pronounced dead at an area hospital less than two hours later. Souza was injured but survived.
The revolver should never have contained live ammunition, according to industry-wide regulations and union guidelines governing the use of firearms on film sets, and the Santa Fe district attorney's office had said in their initial probable cause statement that evidence indicated the scene Baldwin was rehearsing should not have even required the use of blanks. Inert dummy rounds would have sufficed instead, the statement alleged, and cited expert weapons consultants who noted that a plastic or replica gun should have been used during the rehearsal.
It was Gutierrez-Reed's responsibility to manage the weapons being used on the "Rust" set, including the gun that discharged and fatally hit Hutchins, the district attorney's office said. But there are conflicting accounts as to how exactly live ammunition could have ended up in the revolver. The probable cause statement at first alleged that Gutierrez-Reed had loaded the .45 prior to taking a lunch break on Oct. 21, stored it, and retrieved it after lunch before handing it off, without performing the necessary safety checks, to the first assistant director, David Halls.
Halls already served six months of unsupervised parole for negligent use of a firearm, after pleading no contest and admitting that he improperly handled the weapon that fired on the film set. He gave emotional testimony in court during Gutierrez-Reed's trial, saying that she had twice handed over the revolver to Baldwin during the Oct. 21 rehearsal — first, without any ammunition, and a second time, with five dummy rounds and one live bullet.
According to a statement released by Gutierrez-Reed's attorneys in November 2021, she claimed to have conducted a proper safety check on the .45 revolver before passing it on and was unaware of how live ammunition ended up inside the weapon.
The statement mentioned, "No one could have anticipated or thought that someone would introduce live rounds into this set." Gutierrez-Reed also stated that she had instructed actors in the film "Rust" not to aim guns at others on set.
Baldwin has maintained that he only pulled back the hammer of the revolver during the rehearsal on Oct. 21, without pulling the trigger. Following the incident, the actor reached a settlement with Hutchins' family, filed a lawsuit against several "Rust" crew members (including Gutierrez-Reed) for negligence, and pleaded not guilty to the charge of involuntary manslaughter. The trial for this case is pending.
