‘Rust’ armorer, who ripped N.M. jurors as ‘idiots,’ gets max sentence of 18 months

“Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was sentenced to 18 months in prison for her role in the 2021 killing of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

A New Mexico jury took two hours to find the 26-year-old weapons handler guilty of involuntary manslaughter on March 6. Santa Fe Judge Mary Sommer sided with prosecutors who asked for the maximum sentence. She also blasted the defendant for painting herself as the victim as the legal process played out.

“I did not hear you take accountability in your allocution,” Sommer told Gutierrez-Reed in court Monday. “You said you were sorry … but not you were sorry for what you did. You were sorry and hoped [the victim’s family] could find peace. It was your attorney that had to tell the court you were remorseful.”

The judge defined remorse as a deep regret coming from a sense of guilt for past wrongs. “That’s not you,” Sommer said.

“You alone turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon,” Sommer charged. “But for you, Miss Hutchins would be alive, a husband would have his partner and a little boy would have his mother.”

The judge instructed court officers to walk a handcuffed Gutierrez-Reed (photo)out of the courtroom. She will serve her time in a New Mexico women’s correctional facility.

Prosecutors said Gutierrez-Reed called the jurors “idiots” and “retards” in recorded jailhouse conversations. She’s spent the past month in a county jail near Santa Fe.

Prosecutors called the defendant’s jailhouse phone comments a “complete and total failure to accept responsibility” for Hutchins’ death and asked the court not to show leniency.

Gutierrez-Reed also expressed her wishes that actor and “Rust” producer Alec Baldwin, who fired the shot that killed Hutchins, be locked up. The 66-year-old star’s trial begins in July. He also faces up to 18 months incarceration.

The film’s assistant director testified in February that Gutierrez-Reed handed Baldwin a pistol, and the actor said he was assured it was “cold.” A bullet fired from that gun during rehearsal went into Hutchins’ chest and also wounded director Joel Souza. The gun was allegedly loaded with five dummy rounds and a bullet.

In addition to believing he was holding a harmless firearm, Baldwin claims he retracted the F.lli Pietta long Colt 45 revolver’s hammer, but didn’t pull its trigger. A firearms report submitted to prosecutors shed doubt on that assertion. His trial also comes before Judge Sommer.