By Andrew Hay
SANTA FE, New Mexico (Reuters) – Hannah Gutierrez, the main arms dealer in the western film “Rust”, was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Monday for the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed while the actor Alec Baldwin was handling a gun during the film’s 2021 production.
In March, Gutierrez, 27, was found guilty of manslaughter for mistakenly loading a live round into a revolver Baldwin was using on a movie set in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
“You turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon,” Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer told Gutierrez as she handed down the sentence.
On video calls and in the courtroom during the hearing, Hutchins’ film industry friends paid tribute to his creativity and kindness. They also harshly criticized Gutierrez’s violations of firearms safety protocol.
“I have a hard time dealing with this being repeatedly called an accident, because it wasn’t an accident, it was negligence,” said Jen White, a film industry colleague.
The shooting, which stunned Hollywood, is believed to be the first time in modern times that a member of a film crew or cast was killed by an accidentally loaded bullet in a gun.
Baldwin’s trial is set for July 10 after a grand jury indicted him on manslaughter charges in January.
Gutierrez’s attorney, Jason Bowles, had asked that she be granted probation, but prosecutors argued for a full 18 months due to a lack of contrition.
“Please, please, don’t give me any more time,” Gutierrez told the court, adding that his “heart aches” for Hutchins’ family. “The jury found me guilty of this tragedy, but that doesn’t make me a monster.” This makes me human.”
In a video call from Kiev, the cinematographer’s Ukrainian-born mother mourned the death of her daughter and the fact that her young grandson Andros was left motherless.
“The hardest thing is to lose a child,” said Olga Solovey, whose comments were translated into English in subtitles.
Prosecutor Kari Morrissey pointed to Gutierrez’s phone calls from jail in which he said the jurors were “idiots,” that the judge had been “paid off” and continued to blame Baldwin and others for the shooting.
Gutierrez had already spent a month in Santa Fe County Jail following his conviction.
THREE WEEK TRIAL
On March 6, a Santa Fe jury took less than two hours to find her guilty. A juror later said Gutierrez had not done his job to ensure gun safety on set.
Hutchins’ death initially prompted US film and television productions to stop using real firearms and blank ammunition. Two and a half years later, according to gunsmiths, many are using them again for the realistic effects they produce.
Hutchins was fatally shot when Baldwin pointed his gun at the cinematographer and cocked the weapon while she set up a scene.
During Gutierrez’s three-week trial, prosecutors accused her of unknowingly bringing .45 Colt rounds onto the set of the low-budget film, something that has been strictly prohibited for nearly a century under Screen safety guidelines Actors Guild.
Bowles said Gutierrez was the scapegoat for a chaotic production in which she was not given time to check weapons. He attributed Hutchins’ death to Baldwin’s reckless use of firearms and his efforts to rush and control the shooting. Baldwin also served as a producer and writer on the film.
The “30 Rock” actor denies pulling the trigger and said he was ordered to point it at the camera. But the FBI and an independent firearms expert found that the gun would not fire without pulling the trigger.
Film historians like Alan Rode have gone back to the early part of the last century to find examples of Hollywood cast or crew killed by live bullets accidentally loaded into guns.
Previous fatal on-set shootings of actors Brandon Lee in 1993 and Jon-Erik Hexum in 1984 involved blank shots.