Rust weapons supervisor Hannah Gutierrez jailed over fatal shooting on Alec Baldwin film set
The weapons supervisor for the film Rust has been jailed for 18 months following the fatal shooting of the film’s cinematographer on set.
Hannah Gutierrez, 26, was sentenced today after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter by jurors in Santa Fe, New Mexico, following a trial.
She was in charge of weapons during the production of the western film in October 2021, when a Colt 45 revolver fired by actor and co-producer Alec Baldwin went off during a rehearsal.
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died following the incident, while director Joel Souza was injured.
Jurors sitting on Gutierrez’s trial reached their verdict after a two-week trial during which they heard evidence from dozens of witnesses, including eyewitnesses, FBI evidence analysts and an ammunition supplier to Rust, as well as Mr Souza, during a 10-day trial.
A statement from Ms Hutchins’ mother, Olga Solovey, was read aloud to the court during Gutierrez’s sentencing.
In it, she said her life had been split in two and that time didn’t heal, rather it only prolonged her pain and suffering.
“It’s the hardest thing to lose a child. There are no words to describe,” Ms Solovey, who is from Ukraine, said.
Halyna Hutchins. Pic: Shutterstock
‘You turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon’
Handing Gutierrez the maximum sentence, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said a conditional discharge was not appropriate and that leaving the weapons supervisor in a detention centre would “bring you a pass you do not deserve”.
“I did not hear you take responsibility in your allocution, you said you were sorry but not you were ‘sorry for what you did’. It was your attorney that had to tell the court you were remorseful,” the judge said.
“The term remorse, a deep regret coming from a sense of guilt for past wrongs, that’s not you.”
She said Gutierrez’s actions amounted to a “serious, violent offence” that was “committed in a physically violent manner”.
“You were the armourer, 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,” the judge added.
“If not for you, Ms Hutchins would be alive, a husband would have his partner and a little boy would have his mother.”
Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set where it was prohibited and for failing to follow basic gun safety protocols.
They had urged the judge to impose an 18-month sentence and designate Gutierrez-Reed as a “serious violent offender” to limit her eligibility for a sentence reduction later.
But defence lawyers said the weapons supervisor will forever be affected negatively by intense publicity associated with her prosecution in parallel with an A-list actor, and has suffered from anxiety, fear and depression as a result.
After the verdict, her legal team had requested a new trial and asked for her to be released from prison.
What is happening with Baldwin’s case?
Alec Baldwin pictured on the set of Rust
Baldwin, 66, a producer for the film as well as its star, is also charged with involuntary manslaughter and faces a separate trial on 10 July. He has denied any wrongdoing.
His trial is being overseen by the same judge who sentenced Gutierrez-Reed.
Baldwin was originally charged in January 2023, more than a year after the shooting. Those charges were dropped a few months later based on evidence the hammer of the revolver might have been modified, allowing it to fire without the trigger being pulled.
The star was then charged again in January this year.
Baldwin has said he pulled back the gun’s hammer – but not the trigger – and the weapon fired.
His legal team has filed a motion calling for the charges to be dropped once again. Prosecutors responded to this last week, filing a 32-page document which claims that footage of the star on set shows he had “absolutely no control of his own emotions” and “no concern for how his conduct” affected those around him.
Assistant director David Halls, who also faced charges, entered a plea bargain for negligent use of a deadly weapon last year, receiving a six-month suspended sentence.
Filming of Rust resumed last year in Montana – with Baldwin reprising his role as the main character – after an agreement made Ms Hutchins’ widower an executive producer.
Police officers found a handgun, a silencer and a red notebook described as a “manifesto” when they arrested Luigi Mangione.
The 27-year-old was arrested in December 2024 and charged with killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson in New York City.
Mangione‘s lawyers want to block prosecutors from showing or telling jurors at his eventual trial in Manhattan about statements he allegedly made and items they said police seized from his backpack during his arrest at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania.
The objects include a 9mm handgun prosecutors say matches the one used in the killing, a silencer, a magazine with bullets wrapped in underwear and a notebook in which they say Mangione described his intent to “wack” a healthcare executive.
Mangione with his attorney. Pic: Reuters
The defence contends the items should be excluded because police did not get a warrant before searching Mangione’s backpack.
Prosecutors deny claims Mangione was illegally searched and questioned.
They also want to suppress some statements he made to police, such as allegedly giving a false name, because officers asked him questions before telling him he had a right to remain silent.
Last week, Mangione watched surveillance videos of the killing of Mr Thompson, 50, as he walked to a New York City hotel for his company’s annual investor conference.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges.
The state charges carry the possibility of life in prison, while federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
This week’s hearing concerns only the state case, but Mangione’s lawyers want to bar evidence from both cases.
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In September, a judge dismissed two terrorism counts against Mangione, finding prosecutors had not presented enough evidence Mangione intended to intimidate health insurance workers or influence government policy.
Trial dates are yet to be set in either the state or federal cases.
Paramount has launched a £108.4bn hostile bid for Warner Bros, challenging Netflix, which had reached a $72bn takeover deal with the company.
Paramount said on Monday that it was going straight to Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) shareholders with a $30 per share in cash offer for the entirety of the company, including its Global Networks segment, asking them to reject the deal with Netflix.
On Friday Netflix struck a deal to buy WBD, the Hollywood giant behind “Harry Potter” and HBO Max
The agreement means Warner Bros Discovery’s library of film and TV successes including Harry Potter and Game Of Thrones will come under the same roof as Stranger Things and Squid Game.
The cash and stock deal is valued at $27.75 per Warner share, giving it a total enterprise value of $82.7 billion, including debt.
But Paramount says its deal will pay $30 cash per share, representing $18 billion more in cash than its rivals are offering.
In a statement, Paramount said it was making a “strategically and financially compelling offer to WBD shareholders” and a “superior alternative to the Netflix transaction”.
File pic: iStock
David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount, said: “WBD shareholders deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer for their shares in the entire company.
“Our public offer, which is on the same terms we provided to the Warner Bros. Discovery Board of Directors in private, provides superior value, and a more certain and quicker path to completion.
“We believe the WBD Board of Directors is pursuing an inferior proposal which exposes shareholders to a mix of cash and stock, an uncertain future trading value of the Global Networks linear cable business and a challenging regulatory approval process.
“We are taking our offer directly to shareholders to give them the opportunity to act in their own best interests and maximize the value of their shares.”
Paramount said it had submitted six proposals to WBD in the course of 12 weeks, but that they were never “meaningfully” engaged with.
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