Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the 26-year-old armorer for the ill-fated Alec Baldwin film "Rust," is struggling behind bars as she awaits sentencing on a manslaughter charge in the 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, according to her attorney, Jason Bowles. Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter on Wednesday and is currently being held at the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Facility.
The young armorer was in charge of the guns used in the Western when Baldwin accidentally shot Hutchins with a prop gun that had been unknowingly loaded with live ammunition during a rehearsal at a ranch outside Santa Fe, New Mexico. A jury convicted Gutierrez-Reed after three hours of deliberation, finding her ultimately responsible for the live rounds on set.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that Gutierrez-Reed repeatedly flouted gun safety protocols that could have detected the live rounds she's accused of unknowingly bringing onto the movie set. Her legal team, however, maintained that she had been overworked by the production and that the shooting was not her fault. They were all shocked at the guilty verdict, Bowles added.
Gutierrez-Reed faces up to 18 months in prison for her role in the tragic incident. Her attorney told TMZ that her family has yet to visit her at the detention center, although they are working on arranging a time to do so. Her loved ones are said to be devastated by the guilty verdict, despite her acquittal on a charge of tampering with evidence.
Prosecutors had presented a witness who testified that Gutierrez-Reed handed her a bag of white powder on the day Hutchins was killed. The witness, who identified herself as a recovering addict, believed the substance to be cocaine and threw it in a garbage can at the hotel where the crew was set up. However, without being able to prove the substance was cocaine, a jury found Gutierrez-Reed not guilty on the tampering with evidence charge.
Bowles told the outlet that Gutierrez-Reed's legal team plans to seek an appeal to overturn the involuntary manslaughter guilty verdict. The defense maintains that the accident was due to her being overworked by production, as well as her split duties between being an armorer and a prop master. They put the blame on "Rust" producers, claiming that Gutierrez-Reed was just an overworked employee who was rushing around to do her job.
Halyna Hutchins' family, represented by attorney Gloria Allred in a civil lawsuit against Alec Baldwin and other "Rust" producers, expressed satisfaction with the jury's decision to convict Gutierrez-Reed. In a brief statement made to People magazine, family attorneys Gloria Allred and John Carpenter said, "Halyna's parents and her sister have always wanted everyone who is responsible for Halyna's death to be held accountable. Today was the first trial and conviction in the criminal justice process. We are satisfied that the jury, based on the evidence, found Hannah Gutierrez-Reed guilty beyond a reasonable doubt for her part in the taking of Halyna's life."
As Gutierrez-Reed awaits sentencing, the criminal trial against "Rust" actor Alec Baldwin is set to begin on July 9, 2024. Baldwin, who has maintained that he never pulled the trigger, has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter charges. The charges against both Gutierrez-Reed and Baldwin were initially filed in January 2023 but were dropped in April 2023 without prejudice pending further investigation into the gun that went off in the church, seeking possible malfunction. After an FBI report concluded that the trigger had to have been pulled for the gun to go off, prosecutors refiled charges against the 65-year-old actor in January 2024.
