SANTA FE, N.M. — A film armorer has been sentenced to up to 18 months in prison for manslaughter in the shooting death of Alec Baldwin’s cinematographer on the set of a Western movie, but authorities are now It focuses on the prosecution of Baldwin himself.
A New Mexico judge on Monday found that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s recklessness amounted to a serious act of violence, but noted that the defendant has shown few signs of true remorse since her conviction in March. did. Prosecutors accuse Gutierrez-Reed of failing to follow basic gun safety regulations by unknowingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of “Rust,” where it was expressly prohibited.
Attention now turns to Baldwin’s upcoming trial on charges of manslaughter in the October 2021 death of Halina Hutchins at a movie theater ranch outside Santa Fe.
Baldwin, the film’s lead actor and co-producer, was pointing a gun at Hutchins during rehearsals when the gun went off, killing Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza. Baldwin has pleaded not guilty and claims he pulled back the hammer, not the trigger, causing the gun to fire.
As the “Rust” lawsuit against Baldwin approaches, here are some things to know.
Sentence
Prosecutors on Monday described a “series of safety violations” on the film set, starting with Gutierrez-Reed alone.
Gutierrez-Reed said at her sentencing that she tried to do her best on set despite not having “adequate time, resources, and staffing,” and that she believed people were treating her as a monster. He said he was not making a decision.
But Judge Mary Marlow Sommer said the maximum sentence was appropriate given Gutierrez-Reed’s recklessness. She said she lacked remorse and rejected her defense attorney’s request for extenuating circumstances and conditional release that would have avoided further prison time.
The judge ticked off Gutierrez-Reed’s checklist of safety deficiencies and answered her own questions to the point.
“Did she have enough time to safely load the weapon? A lot,” the judge said. “Did she load the weapon? Yes, with dummies and live ammunition. Did she check what she was loading? No.”
Halina Hutchins remembered.
Hutchins, who was 42 at the time of his death, grew up on a remote Soviet military base and worked in documentary filmmaking in Eastern Europe before studying film in Los Angeles and embarking on a promising filmmaking career.
At his sentencing hearing, friends and family described Hutchins as courageous, tenacious and caring.
Testimony in court also included calls for justice and punishment that would impose greater responsibility for safety on film sets.
Hutchins’ relatives in Ukraine are seeking damages for Baldwin’s death in connection with the shooting. Attorney Gloria Allred is representing Hutchins’ parents and sister and said the family supports Baldwin’s criminal prosecution.
“No one has ever come to me to apologize,” Hutchins’ mother, Olga Solovey, said in a tearful video testimony played during Gutierrez-Reed’s sentencing.
After Hutchins’ death, filming for “The Last” was moved to Montana in agreement with her husband, Matthew Hutchins, who served as executive producer.
Baldwin is indicted
Prosecutors dismissed an earlier manslaughter charge against Baldwin because they were told the gun he was carrying may have been modified and malfunctioned before firing.
The new analysis of the gun cleared the way for prosecutors to reopen the case. A grand jury indicted Baldwin on the same charges in January. The indictment alleges Baldwin caused Hutchins’ death through either negligence or “utter disregard or indifference” to safety.
If he is convicted, he could face up to 18 months in prison on this charge.
Baldwin’s attorneys are asking a judge to dismiss the grand jury indictment, accusing prosecutors of “unfairly stacking” the grand jury proceedings and diverting attention from exculpatory evidence and witnesses.
The special counsel denies these accusations, calling them a “shameless” attempt by Baldwin to evade responsibility, and criticizes Baldwin’s statements to law enforcement, workplace safety regulators and the general public in television interviews. It emphasizes the contradiction.
An FBI expert testified at Gutierrez-Reed’s trial that the revolver used by Baldwin was fully functional with safety features when it arrived at the FBI’s laboratory. Experts said a fully cocked gun would need to be struck with a mallet to break it in order to fire without pressing the trigger.
conversations from prison
Defense attorney Jason Bowles said Gutierrez-Reed will appeal the judge’s decision and sentence against her.
“There were multiple system failures by multiple people,” Bowles said in his ruling. “Some of those people have appeared in court. …Some have not yet appeared in court. At least one He is scheduled to go to trial in July.
Gutierrez-Reed was acquitted of evidence tampering charges at trial, but he faces other felony charges in a separate case for allegedly bringing a gun to a bar in downtown Santa Fe.
During the sentencing, Ms. Gutierrez-Reed cried as Hutchins’ attorney, Craig Mizrahi, spoke of the cinematographer’s creativity and described her as a rising star in Hollywood.
But special prosecutor Kari Morrissey said she reviewed about 200 phone calls Gutierrez-Reed made from jail last month. She had hoped there would be a moment when the defendant would take responsibility for Hutchins’ death or express her sincere remorse, but “that moment never came,” she said.
