‘Rust’ weapons supervisor sentenced to jail time for on-set shooting
After the wrongful death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, weapons supervisor Hannah Gutierrez has been convicted of involuntary manslaughter. The fatal shooting of Hutchins occurred on the set of the film Rust in the fall of 2021.
When reading the verdict, the jury found that Gutierrez-Reed had not taken proper care of the props on set, including bringing live ammunition to the set that was not called for that day. Due to her neglect in meeting gun safety protocols, the armourer has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.
At the beginning of the film, Gutierrez-Reed supplied pistols for use by actor Alec Baldwin when the revolver went off and caused the fatal injury. In addition to killing Hutchins, the backfire of the shot also injured director Joel Souza. Assistant director David Halls also faces charges for the fatal accident on set, being charged with a six-month sentence for negligence with a deadly weapon.
This comes after Baldwin was initially charged in the murder of Hutchins, given he had been handling the revolver when the shot was fired. After going through multiple takes, Baldwin insisted that the gun had gone off on its own, having not pulled the trigger on the firearm.
Although the first charges surrounding the actor were dropped, another trial is underway in regard to Baldwin’s role in Hutchins’s death. His trial is set to take place in July of 2024, and if convicted, he will spend eight months in prison. The defence has placed the blame squarely on Gutierrez-Reed, claiming that the supervisor had treated all of the safety protocols as optional.
Since then, Baldwin’s lawyers have stated that the accusations lobbied against him are completely unjust, claiming that the prosecution unfairly stacked the facts against him. As Baldwin awaits trial, he is allowed to stay out of prison provided that he doesn’t consume alcohol, leave the country, or be in possession of a firearm before his day in court.
There has been no word on when Rust is set to be released, but the movie has started to continue production in Montana in 2023. Hutchins’s widow has also been named as an executive producer on the film.
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