LOS ANGELES (EFE).— Hannah Gutiérrez-Reed, the gunsmith from the filming of “Rust,” was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in prison by a court in New Mexico (United States) after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the death in 2021 from Halyna Hutchins, the film’s director of photography.
Gutiérrez-Reed is the first person to be tried in this case. She was responsible for loading the gun that Alec Baldwin used on filming and from which a real bullet came out that killed Hutchins on October 21, 2021.
“You turned a gun into a deadly weapon, and if it weren’t for you, Hutchins would be alive,” Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said after announcing the sentence.
Gutiérrez-Reed (27 years old) was found guilty on March 6 and yesterday the judge ruled that the gunsmith, who was also responsible for the security protocol of the film produced and starring Alec Baldwin, will serve 18 months in a prison in women in New Mexico.
Before the verdict, Gutiérrez-Reed had asked the judge to grant her probation so she could perform community service, arguing that she was “young and naive” when she accepted the job and that she was hurt by the death of Hutchins, who, she said, , will always be “an inspiration” for her.
At Monday’s hearing, friends and family of Hutchins paid tribute to the cinematographer with emotional words about the impact of her death.
“Halyna was the best daughter in this world (…) Time has not healed, my pain and suffering has only prolonged it. I hope that the culprits are punished and sentenced fairly,” the victim’s mother, Olga Solovey, said in a statement.
In March, the jury largely agreed that Gutiérrez-Reed acted negligently by not verifying that the ammunition in the .45 caliber revolver used in the filming of this Western was not real, so the death of the director of photography was a “foreseeable consequence” of their way of proceeding.
Gutiérrez-Reed’s legal defense argued throughout the process that the reduction in security expenses to make this film caused her to have an excessive workload and could not focus on tasks purely related to weapons and ammunition.
Baldwin will also go to trial on July 9 accused of involuntary manslaughter and if convicted, the interpreter could face up to 18 months in prison.
