‘Rust’ armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed sentenced to 18 months in 2021 shooting

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was responsible for the firearms for the Alec Baldwin-starring film “Rust,” was sentenced to 18 months in prison over the infamous on-set shooting that killed the production’s cinematographer.

The 1 1/2-year sentence was handed down Monday in a New Mexico state court.

Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer admonished Gutierrez-Reed during the hearing for her “recklessness in the face of knowledge,” telling her, “You were the armorer: The one that stood between a safe weapon and a weapon that could kill someone. You alone turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon.” 

Last month, a jury convicted 26-year-old Gutierrez-Reed of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Halyna Hutchins, “Rust’s” cinematographer. Gutierrez-Reed, who had faced 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine on the involuntary manslaughter charge, was acquitted of tampering with evidence.

Hutchins, 42, was killed in 2021 after authorities say Baldwin fired a live round from a prop gun while rehearsing a scene on the New Mexico set for the Western film. The film’s director, Joel Souza, was injured in the shooting.

Prosecutors had argued that Gutierrez-Reed, the film’s armorer, was reckless and didn’t take basic measures to ensure firearm safety on the set. 

Sommer told Gutierrez-Reed on Monday that she did not “take accountability,” saying, “It was your attorney that had to tell the court that you were remorseful.”

“But for you,” the judge said, Hutchins “would be alive, a husband would have his partner, and a little boy would have his mother.”

Baldwin is also facing an involuntary manslaughter charge. The 66-year-old Academy Awards winner, who has pleaded not guilty, is poised to go on trial in July. 

The production team behind the movie announced in 2022 that it would resume filming following a settlement Baldwin reached with Hutchins’s family. Filming for the project began again in Montana last year. 

Updated at 2:25 p.m. EDT