A movie weapons supervisor is facing up to 18 months in prison for the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western film “Rust,” with her sentencing scheduled for Monday in a New Mexico state court.
Movie armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was convicted in March by a jury on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and has been held for more than a month at a county jail on the outskirts of Santa Fe.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer for “Rust,” was pointing a gun at Hutchins when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
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Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of “Rust” where it was expressly prohibited and for failing to follow basic gun safety protocols. After a two-week trial, the jury deliberated for about three hours in reaching its verdict.
It’s been a while since I really looked into it, but there seem to be some open questions that could get him on the same standard:
What’s up with his claim that he didn’t even pull the trigger, which seems to have been misleading?
Could he have pointed the gun in a slightly different direction?
Was the shot they wanted so artistically necessary that it had to be done with practical effects?
Does an actor still maintain some residual “normal human” responsibility before pulling a trigger on a real gun pointed at an innocent person, and if so how much?
Did he, in his role as a producer on a fairly slapdash production, bear any culpability for the armorer’s actions or for hiring her in the first place? The NM statute is pretty broad, though I think he’ll more likely face civil than criminal liability here.
All in all, my gut impression is he has a very good chance at being acquitted, but it was also a fair case to bring:
EDIT: @[email protected] is probably more up on what’s going on than I am.