“Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed has agreed to plead guilty to bringing a gun into a bar in Santa Fe, N.M., and will be sentenced to 18 months of probation.
Gutierrez Reed, 27, is already serving an 18-month prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. The plea does not alter that case.
She could have faced up to 18 additional months in prison for bringing the gun into a bar, but will instead get to serve supervised probation from her home in Arizona.
Gutierrez Reed was convicted by a Santa Fe jury in March of negligently loading a live bullet into Alec Baldwin’s gun, which then fired, causing Hutchins’ death.
The manslaughter case against Baldwin was dismissed during his trial in July, after a judge found that prosecutors had withheld evidence from the defense.
Gutierrez Reed’s lawyers are seeking to have her manslaughter conviction thrown out on similar grounds.
While the manslaughter case was pending last fall, prosecutors indicted her on an additional felony charge for bringing a gun into the Matador bar on Oct. 1, 2021, about three weeks before Hutchins’ death.
Gutierrez Reed’s defense argued that the charge was an attempt to pressure her into pleading guilty in the manslaughter case, and into accepting responsibility for bringing live bullets onto the set, which she has denied doing.
A hearing was scheduled for Thursday on a defense motion to throw out the gun case. The defense had argued that special prosecutor Kari Morrissey lacked authority to bring the charge, because it was unrelated to the “Rust” shooting.
The defense also argued that the charge was vindictive, in retaliation for refusing to accept the plea deal in the other case, and that it was the result of an overly broad search of Gutierrez Reed’s phone.
That hearing has been canceled, and the defense has instead asked for a hearing sometime in the next week so that Gutierrez Reed can enter her plea.
A separate hearing is set for Sept. 26 on Gutierrez Reed’s motion for a new trial in the manslaughter case. Her defense has accused Morrissey of failing to turn over key evidence that might have influenced the outcome of the trial.
The defense has also asked that she be released from prison pending the outcome of a new trial.
From Variety US