Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the gunsmith of the western Rust, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter for the death of Halyna Hutchins, the director of photography on the film starring Alec Baldwin. This is the judge's decision. The gunsmith will have to serve her sentence in a New Mexico prison. Baldwin, who was holding the gun from which the lethal shot was fired, was also indicted for involuntary manslaughter: the trial against him will begin in July.
Gutierrez-Reed says she is "sorry" but "has shown no remorse for her specific conduct," said the judge who sent the gunsmith to prison in rejecting the defense's request for parole.
"I'm not a monster", sobbing the young woman for whom Rust had been the first job in the trade inherited from her father, a famous Hollywood gunsmith: "I was young and naive, but I always did my best", she added asking to be released to do "whatever you want me to do, classes, community service."
The lethal shooting on the set of Rust, a low-cost western produced by Baldwin who was also the protagonist, dates back to October 2021. With Hutchins, mortally wounded, he had been hit by the bullet fired from the gun that the actor was holding also the director Joel Souza.
Gutierrez-Reed was responsible for the safety and good maintenance of the weapons on set. Today's decision raises the stakes for Baldwin who initially got away but was then indicted a second time for involuntary manslaughter. In recent days, preparing the ground for the July trial, the New Mexico prosecutor's office had released a dossier in which it states that the actor "lied shamelessly" and changed his story several times in the hours and days following the tragedy.
"Watching Baldwin's conduct on the set of Rust was like watching a man who had no control over his emotions and no concern about the impact his conduct might have on others," prosecutor Karl Morrissey wrote in response to the statements. of witnesses according to whom "this same conduct had contributed to compromises on the security front".