- Written by Samantha Granville and Helen Bushby in Los Angeles
- bbc news
Hannah Gutierrez-Reid, the movie set weapons handler who loaded and fired actor Alec Baldwin’s gun, killing the cinematographer, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.
She was acquitted of a second charge of tampering with evidence in connection with the 2021 shooting death of Halina Hutchins on the set of the film The Last.
The sentence Mr. Gutierrez-Reed received was the maximum possible.
Baldwin, 65, is also scheduled to stand trial for manslaughter in July. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Delivering the sentence Monday in New Mexico state court, Judge Mary Marlow Sommer said Gutierrez-Reed’s actions constituted a serious and violent crime committed in a physically violent manner.
Judge Sommer told the armorer: “Only you turned a safe weapon into a deadly weapon.” “But to you, Ms. Hutchins would be alive. Her husband would have a partner, and the little boy would have a mother.”
Hutchins, 42, was killed on the set of a western movie in New Mexico when a gun used by Baldwin in rehearsal fired live ammunition.
Prosecutors argued that Gutierrez-Reed could not confirm whether the weapon was loaded with only dummy bullets, meaning the fake bullets looked and sounded like the real thing.
Prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey said in closing arguments in the trial that “this case is about a series of persistent and unending safety deficiencies that resulted in the death of a human being.”
Morrissey told jurors that Gutierrez-Reed was “negligent,” “careless” and “imprudent” for failing to notice that live ammunition was mixed in with the dummy bullets in the ammunition box at the scene of the shooting. said.
One of the bullets was in the firearm Baldwin was using, prosecutors said.
Jurors deliberated for three hours before returning their verdict in March. Mr Hutchins’ parents and sister said they were “pleased” with the verdict.
Their statement added: “We remain hopeful that the justice system will ensure that all others responsible for Ms. Halina’s death are required to face legal consequences for their actions.”
image source, Getty Images
Gutierrez-Reed addressed the court before sentencing and said her heart ached for Hutchin’s family and friends.
“The jury found me guilty. That doesn’t make me a monster. It makes me human,” she said through tears.
But Judge Sommer said he felt the armorer had not taken responsibility for his actions. “I have not heard that he will take responsibility,” the judge said.
Hutchins’ mother and sister also spoke in a video recorded from their hometown of Kiev, Ukraine. Her mother, Olga Solovey, said in her translated video that no one involved in her daughter’s death expressed sympathy.
“It’s very important to me that there is justice,” she said.
During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Gutierrez-Reed brought boxes of live ammunition from her home in California to a movie set in New Mexico. These live bullets slowly spread throughout the set over 12 days.
Mr. Morrissey said that the armorer had no intention of bringing live ammunition onto the set, and instead believed that Mr. Hutchins’ death was due to tragic negligence.
Prosecutors added that Gutierrez-Reed was “more concerned about his career” than the victims after the shooting.
Gutierrez-Reed did not testify during the two-week trial, but her lawyer said in closing arguments that prosecutors had failed to prove that his client was the only person responsible for the fatal shooting.
” [ammunition] The box is not the problem. Because we don’t know what was in there three or four days ago,” attorney Jason Bowles told jurors, arguing his client didn’t know there was live ammunition at the scene of the shooting.
Bowles also criticized Baldwin, claiming he “went off script” by pointing a gun at film staff. “It was not in the script for Mr. Baldwin to point the weapon,” he said. “She didn’t know Mr. Baldwin was trying to do the same thing she was.”
Mr Bowles had vowed to appeal the conviction.
Gutierrez-Reed was acquitted of evidence tampering charges stemming from accusations that he tried to dispose of a small bag of drugs after the shooting.
Last year, the cast and crew of the film finished filming in honor of Ms. Hutchins, with her husband serving as executive producer.
