On Monday, a New Mexico judge sentenced a movie weapons handler for the movie “Rust” to 18 months in prison for a 2021 on-set shooting that killed a cinematographer.
According to the Los Angeles Times, New Mexico First District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said Hannah Gutierrez-Reed has not shown remorse for her actions. Gutierrez-Reed, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, claims she believed she filled the prop gun that Alec Baldwin fired with dummy rounds.
READ: ‘Rust’ Movie Armorer Guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter
Baldwin has claimed he was showing how he would pull a gun from the holster when the weapon fired in a mock church pew at Bonanza Creek Ranch — leading to a single bullet traveling through director Joel Souza’s shoulder which then struck Hutchins — killing her.
“You were the armorer, the one that stood between a safe weapon and a weapon that could kill someone,” Marlowe Sommer told Gutierrez, per the Los Angeles Times.“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.”
Though Baldwin was originally charged with involuntary manslaughter in January 2023, prosecutors dropped the charges three months later. At the time, prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis said they needed additional time to investigate new information presented to them, and that their review would not be completed before Baldwin’s preliminary hearing.
The charges were dismissed without prejudice, meaning they could be refiled at a later date. Prosecutors re-charged Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter in January.
Baldwin’s trial is set to begin in July.
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[Featured Image: AP Photo/Jae C. Hong; Hannah Gutierrez-Reed/Sante Fe County Detention Center and Halyna Hutchins/handout]
