‘Rust in jail!’ Unremorseful armourer gets 18 months
SANTA FE: The armourer who loaded the gun that killed a cinematographer on the set of the Alec Baldwin movie Rust has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Hannah Gutierrez stood impassively as a judge in New Mexico told her she was not remorseful for the October 2021 death of Halyna Hutchins during filming of the western.
“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,” Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said.
“But for you, Miss Hutchins would be alive.”
Gutierrez’s 10-day trial for involuntary manslaughter had heard the 26-year-old had repeatedly failed to follow basic safety rules, leaving guns unattended and allowing actors – including Baldwin – to wave weapons around. It also heard she was responsible for the presence of six live rounds and loaded one of them into the Colt .45 Baldwin was using.
The weapon discharged as Baldwin prepared a scene, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
“Halyna Hutchins died due to a cascade of safety 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,” prosecutor Kari Morrissey told the sentencing hearing.
She said Gutierrez had made around 200 calls from jail in which she complained that she was being unfairly victimised.
“Rather than accept responsibility, she has chosen to place blame on the witnesses who testified against her, me, you, the jurors, the set medic and the paramedics who tried to save Miss Hutchins’ life. Her jail calls … tell us who Miss Gutierrez really is.”
Gutierrez sobbed as she begged the court for probation, rather than jail, but still insisted she was not wholly to blame.
“I was young … but I took my job as seriously as I knew how to, despite not having proper time, resources and staffing,” she said. The judge dismissed her plea, saying: “I did not hear you take accountability.”