On March 7, a New Mexico jury announced that Hannah Gutierrez Reed, who worked as a gunsmith during the filming of the film rust, starring Alec Baldwin, in which Halyna Hutchins, director of photography, died, had been found guilty of manslaughter. However, it was this Monday, six weeks later, when the sentence that Gutierrez Reed faces became known: he will have to spend 18 months in jail. It is the maximum applicable penalty, the same one that Baldwin will face at his trial next July.
The trial began in February and at the hearing prosecutors argued that Hannah Gutierrez Reed, 26 (24 when the events occurred), had been careless with her work. The young woman is the daughter of a weapons consultant known in the film world, but she was very inexperienced at the time, they stated. She was the one who managed both the weapons and the ammunition, and therefore prosecutors claimed that she was responsible for there being a real bullet in the gun fired by actor Alec Baldwin and that hit Hutchins, who died shortly after.
After knowing the result of the deliberation on March 7, Gutierrez Reed was sent to jail by the judge in the case, Mary Marlowe Sommer, and this Monday she went to the Santa Fe court to hear the verdict (she has not testified in her defense) and also to read a statement, in which he stated: “The first and foremost thing is that I suffer for the family and friends of the Hutchings family, and this has been the case since the day of the tragedy.” She also said: “I understand that she died too soon, and I pray that everyone finds peace.” She herself has assured through tears that she was “young and naive” to accept that job, but that despite everything she tried to take it as seriously as she knew how.
She has also stated that she has been saddened by the way in which “this traumatic tragedy” has become the stuff of sensationalism and in which she has been portrayed “as a complete monster”: “Despite not having the time, the resources and staff, when things got difficult I did everything I could to handle the situation,” he said in his written statement. “The jury has found me partly guilty of this horrific tragedy, but that does not make me a monster, but a human being.” Her lawyers will appeal, as they assure that she has had to suffer “collateral consequences much harsher than those most defendants must face.”
Lawyers for Halyna Hutchins' family, the famous Gloria Allred and John Carpenter, have stated that the family is “satisfied” with the outcome. “We hope that justice continues to ensure that all others responsible for Halyna's death have to face the legal consequences of her actions,” they said.
For her part, the prosecutor, Kari T. Morrissey, has assured that every time there were shots with fake bullets, “it was Russian roulette,” in reference to the danger of finding authentic weapons material mixed with fake ones. On the day of the movie, there must have been six blanks loaded in the gun, but one, the one that killed Hutchins, turned out to be genuine. “Honestly, during this process I have hoped that there would be some moment in which Gutierrez Reed took responsibility for him, expressed some level of remorse that was genuine, and that moment has never come,” she said harshly.
For his part, Alec Baldwin has already pleaded not guilty, but the star and producer of the film will be tried in July. He was already accused of involuntary manslaughter for the first time in January 2023, but prosecutors ended up dropping the charges just a few weeks later when they learned that the pistol in question was modified. However, this year a grand jury returned a criminal indictment after finding new evidence. Jury selection will begin on July 9 and the hearing is expected to last up to 10 days. He also faces 18 months in prison.
The actor claims that he never pulled the trigger of the gun in question, but the expert reports carried out by both the FBI and independent experts agree that, for the gun to fire, the trigger had to be pulled.
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