‘Rust’ weapons supervisor sentenced to 18 months in prison

The weapons supervisor on the set of the ill-fated film Rust has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.

On October 21, 2021 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot and director Joel Souza was injured on the set of the film, when a live round was discharged from a revolver being used as a prop by Alec Baldwin.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 26, who had served as an armourer on the film, had been on trial charged with involuntary manslaughter, to which she pled not guilty. However, in March, the jury convicted her, but found her not guilty of tampering with evidence. Baldwin will be on trial for the same charges in July and has also pleaded his innocence.

Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said that Gutierrez-Reed had shown no remorse as she gave her the maximum possible sentence for the crime.

“You alone turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon,” the judge said. “But for you, Ms. Hutchins would be alive, a husband would have his partner, and a little boy would have his mother.”

Hutchins’ mother, Olga Solovey, and sister, Svetlana Zemko, also gave pre-recorded statements to the court in videos filmed in Ukraine, where they live.

“The day of her death ruined my entire life,” Solovey said, speaking in Ukrainian. “It’s heart-wrenching to see her child grow without his mother.”

Gutierrez-Reed said in a prepared statement that her “heart aches” for the Hutchins family, adding that was “saddened by the way the media sensationalized our traumatic tragedy and portrayed me as a complete monster.”

“When I took on Rust, I was young and I was naive but I took my job as seriously as I knew how to,” she said. “Despite not having proper time, resources and staffing, when things got tough I just did my best to handle it… I beg you please don’t give me more time. The jury found me in part at fault for this god-awful tragedy. But that doesn’t make me a monster. That makes me human.”

Gutierrez-Reed plans to appeal the sentence.

In January, SAG-AFTRA issued a statement defending Baldwin’s role in Hutchins’ death. “An actor’s job is not to be a firearms or weapons expert,” the union said. “Performers train to perform, and they are not required or expected to be experts on guns or experienced in their use. The industry assigns that responsibility to qualified professionals who oversee their use and handling in every aspect.”

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