Jail, but ‘time does not heal’
Gun gal’s 18 months in ‘Rust’ slay
“Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed sobbed Monday as she was sentenced to 18 months in prison over the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins, whose mother told the court “time does not heal.”
Gutierrez-Reed, 26, was led into court shackled at the wrist and wearing khaki jail scrubs with a white long-sleeve T-shirt.
Several close friends and family members of Hutchins then gave emotional statements about the impact her death — which happened on set in 2021 after Alec Baldwin fired a gun that had accidentally been loaded with a live bullet — had on them.
Gutierrez-Reed’s sentence for involuntary manslaughter, the maximum possible, was then handed down by New Mexico District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, who made a point of sending her to prison, rather than a lesser sentence.
She told her: “I did not hear you take accountability . . . . You said you were sorry, but not you were sorry for what you did.
“It was your attorney that had to tell the court you were remorseful. The word remorse, a deep regret coming from a sense of guilt for past wrongs, that’s not you.
“I find that what you did constitutes a serious violent offense. It was committed in a physically violent manner . . . . I am sentencing you to 18 months of incarceration at a women’s correctional facility in New Mexico.”
‘Why a live bullet?’
Earlier, Guiterrez-Reed looked on — crying on and off — as Hutchins was described as a wonderful friend and mother. Hutchins’ mother, Olga Solovey, cried throughout a video recording — spoken in Ukrainian and translated through subtitles — saying: “The day of her death ruentire ined my life. It’s heart-wrenching to see her child grow without his mother.
“On the night [husband] Matt [called to say she died], I was screaming and kept pleading with him,” Solovey said. “Time does not heal. It is two and a half years past, and it gets worse and worse.”
Emilia Mendieta, one of Hutchins’ best friends, told the court: “The last four words she ever said to me [were], ‘I believe in you.’ Those four words will forever echo in my soul.
“Halyna’s death is the result of a massive system failure . . . . It all boils down to a very simple question. Why was there a live bullet on set? . . . That is where Hannah Gutierrez-Reed failed Halyna. It was her job to check the gun, check the bullets, to ensure that Halyna was safe.”
Close family friend Steven Metz said the incident has completely destroyed husband Matthew Hutchins.
He said: “Basically, Matt died when Halyna died.”
Before Marlowe Sommer handed down sentence, Gutierrez-Reed begged for leniency and said her heart “aches” over the tragedy.
“I understand she was taken too soon,” Gutierrez-Reed said, her voice-breaking with emotion throughout the statement.
However, she then went on to say the media had painted her like a “monster” and said she was “young and naive” when she started working on the Western movie.
Baldwin, 66, who is awaiting trial also on manslaughter charges, mistakenly fired off the bullet while rehearsing, killing cinematographer Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.