The film armorer who loaded a live bullet into Alec Baldwin‘s gun on the set of “Rust,” leading to the death of a cinematographer, was sentenced Monday to the maximum term, 18 months in prison.
Hannah Gutierrez Reed, 26, was convicted in March of involuntary manslaughter, after a jury found that her negligence caused the death of Halyna Hutchins.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said that Gutierrez Reed had not shown any remorse.
“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.”
Before issuing the sentence, the judge heard from Hutchins’ relatives and friends, from her agent, and from “Rust” director Joel Souza, who was struck in the shoulder by the bullet that killed her.
Hutchins’ mother, Olga Solovey, and sister, Svetlana Zemko, addressed the court in pre-recorded videos from 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.”
Souza also spoke of the deep loss caused by the tragedy.
“What I want is simply not possible. I want that none of this ever happened, that everyone is OK, that lives weren’t destroyed,” he said. “One moment the world made sense. The next moment it didn’t, and it still doesn’t, and I don’t know if it ever will again.”
Gutierrez Reed has been held since March 6 at the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Center, and was brought into the courtroom in shackles and a pale green jumpsuit.
In a prepared statement, she said that her “heart aches” for the Hutchins family, and said she was “saddened by the way the media sensationalized our traumatic tragedy and portrayed me as a complete monster.”
She asked the court to give her probation.
“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’s father, veteran film armorer Thell Reed, also asked for mercy.
“It’s a horrible tragedy for that wonderful lady Halyna to lose her life,” he said. “Also it would be a tragedy to put my daughter Hannah in the penitentiary for that.”
In a memo last week, prosecutor Kari Morrissey wrote that Gutierrez Reed’s jail calls show she is not remorseful, and still pins the blame on others, including Baldwin, the film’s producers, and the paramedics who tended to Hutchins after she was shot.
According to the memo, Gutierrez Reed also called the jurors “idiots” and made disparaging remarks about the judge and the prosecutor.
Marlowe Sommer took note of those calls before issuing the sentence, saying that they showed she did not deserve probation. She also noted that at no point in her statement did Gutierrez Reed say she was sorry for what she had done.
“I did not hear you take accountability,” Marlowe Sommer said.
The judge also designated the crime a “serious violent offense,” which limits the amount of credit Gutierrez Reed can receive for good behavior to 15% of her sentence.
In a response filed on Sunday, defense attorney Jason Bowles said that the jail calls show her “frustration at the system,” and that they do not detract from her heartbreak and sadness over Hutchins’ death.
“No doubt, some things said on those jail calls were not accurate, including regarding this Court,” Bowles wrote. “We live in a country, however, where people are accorded some latitude in stating even unpopular opinions and statements which are wrong and lamentable.”
Gutierrez Reed plans to appeal. In his filing, Bowles also stated that he recently learned that the state had failed to turn over records of an interview with Seth Kenney, the weapons supplier, until after the trial. Bowles argued that the interview included exculpatory material that could have been used on cross-examination.
Baldwin was indicted in January on a charge of involuntary manslaughter for pointing the gun at Hutchins and pulling the trigger. He is set to go on trial in July.
From Variety US