'Rust' Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed Is Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison

On Oct. 21, 2021, at 1:49 p.m., "Santa Fe County emergency crews were summoned to Bonanza Creek Ranch in response to a shooting that would leave the entertainment industry reeling," reported the Los Angeles Times.

The cast and crew for the movie Rust were preparing to film a scene that involved actor and producer Alec Baldwin firing a gun. "I guess I’m gonna take this out, pull it, and go, 'Bang!'" said Baldwin while putting his hand on top of a Colt .45 revolver in its holster.

No one could have predicted what happened next, when a bullet tore through the chest of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, hitting the shoulder of director Joel Souza who stood behind her. "That was no good," said Hutchins. "That was no good at all." Hours later she would be pronounced dead. More than two years after that, the armorer responsible for checking the gun would stand trial for involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering. Where is Hannah Gutierrez-Reed now? Here's what we know.

Gutierrez-Reed's involuntary manslaughter trial began in February 2024 in Santa Fe, N.M., where Rust was being filmed. Prosecutors alleged that 26-year-old Gutierrez-Reed, who was 24 at the time of the shooting, "failed to properly review the ammunition in the gun" and have also "accused her of allowing live ammunition on-set," per Vulture.

On Feb. 27, 2024, jurors were shown a police interview from November 2021 wherein Gutierrez-Reed admits that the dummy bullets she was using were from a previous film she worked on a few weeks prior. "I went back through a bag that I had," she told authorities. "This bag had a bunch of loose dummies in it. I went through and I checked all of them, and I put them into two boxes … They were in my car for like two weeks." Evidently Gutierrez-Reed failed to see that one of those dummy bullets was a live round, per Variety.

A little over a week later on March 6, after deliberating for less than three hours, a jury handed over a guilty verdict, per CNN. Gutierrez-Reed — who was found not guilty of evidence tampering — faced up to 18 months in prison.

In a press release issued by attorneys representing Hutchins’s parents and sister, they said they "look forward to the justice system continuing to make sure that everyone else who is responsible for Halyna’s death is required to face the legal consequences for their actions."

On April 15, 2024, Gutierrez-Reed was sentenced to 18 months in prison. During her trial, prosecutor Kari Morrissey said "she was negligent, she was careless, she was thoughtless." At the sentencing, Morissey did not hold back. "Halyna Hutchins died due to a cascade of violations that began with Miss Gutierrez introducing live rounds to the movie set, loading one into a prop gun, telling the members of the crew that it was a cold gun, thereby ensuring it would make its way into the hands of Mr. Baldwin."

Morissey added that Gutierrez-Reed was without remorse and accountability and as such, was deserving of the full 18 month sentencing which would make her a "serious violent offender." Victim impact statements were then read by Hutchins's friends and family, beginning with her agent Craig Mizrahi. After describing how Hutchins's death was an incredible blow to her community, we heard from other friends as well as her mother and sister in Ukraine.

Gutierrez-Reed was afforded the opportunity to make a statement after sitting stone-faced in the courtroom. After apologizing to Hutchins's friends and family, Gutierrez-Reed took a moment to chastise the media for "portraying her as a monster." She begged for probation which ended up falling on deaf ears.

Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer referenced recorded jailhouse phone conversations from Gutierrez-Reed after she was convicted. In them, Gutierrez-Reed was completely lacking in accountability and slammed the jury, calling them idiots. She also expressed more concern for an apparent lost career as a model. Perhaps the biggest transgression comes in the form of Gutierrez-Reed's thoughts on the death of Hutchins, saying she felt that a possible 13-month sentence was "ridiculous."

Perhaps we'll never know how much these phone calls contributed to Judge Sommer's decision to sentence Gutierrez-Reed to the harshest punishment possible for her crimes. We do know that Gutierrez-Reed's actions and the subsequent results, were not taken lightly. One of the last things the judge said to Gutierrez-Reed was that if it wasn't for her, "Miss Hutchins would be alive, a husband would have his partner, and a little boy would have his mother."