‘Rust’ armorer seeks to have name cleared
Gutierrez-Reed, facing sentencing on Monday, asks for conditional discharge of involuntary manslaughter conviction
Attorneys for Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed are asking a district judge to put her behind bars but then to remove a felony conviction from her record if she successfully completes a court-ordered period of probation.
Gutierrez-Reed’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Monday following her recent conviction on an involuntary manslaughter charge in connection with the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
In a memo to the court filed Wednesday, her attorneys ask the judge to sentence her to “some period of incarceration followed by a term of probation” but also to grant her a conditional discharge. That means she would not have a felony conviction on her record if she successfully completes probation.
Conditional discharges are available only to defendants with no prior felony convictions; people are only allowed one per lifetime.
Involuntary manslaughter, a fourth-degree felony, carries a maximum penalty of 18 months incarceration, but her attorneys wrote in the memo Gutierrez-Reed has “endured and will continue to endure collateral consequences far harsher than most defendants ever must face,” in connection with the charge. They noted heavy media coverage of the case will “forever impact” her job prospects and ability to lead a normal life again.
Granting Gutierrez-Reed a conditional discharge also will maintain some fairness in the case, according to her attorneys who have contended the young armorer was made a scapegoat for Hutchins’ death by the film’s star and producer Alec Baldwin, and other producers of the film.
The criminal case against Gutierrez-Reed arose from the October 2021 on-set incident in which Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza wounded by a bullet that came from a gun Baldwin was holding during a walkthrough of a scene at Bonanza Creed Ranch south of Santa Fe. Jurors convicted her in March following a two-week trial.
Sarah Zachry, a prop master and assistant armorer on
the film, received immunity in exchange for her testimony against Gutierrez-Reed, her attorneys noted in the memo.
Assistant director David Halls — who testified during Gutierrez-Reed’s trial he’d failed to conduct a thorough check of the weapon prior to the scene — pleaded no contest in 2023 to a negligent use of a deadly weapon and was sentenced to six months of probation as part of an agreement with prosecutors.
Baldwin — who has denied pulling the gun’s trigger — also is charged with involuntary manslaughter. He’s entered a plea of not guilty and is scheduled to stand trial in July.
The memo from defense attorneys Jason Bowles and Monnica Barreras also asks the court to consider Gutierrez-Reed’s lack of prior criminal record and “mental health history, substance use, and trauma that she has endured in her young life,” when deciding her sentence.
The memo includes written character references from seven people her attorneys say will provide “a more ‘holistic’ picture of the kind of person Ms. Gutierrez Reed is.”