18 months in prison for the gunsmith of the film ‘Rust’ in which the director of photography was shot dead

A New Mexico judge sentenced 18 months in prison for a crime of involuntary manslaughter to Hannah Gutiérrez-Reed, the film’s weapons supervisor Ruston whose film set, actor Alec Baldwin held a gun that fired live ammunition and killed the director of photography, Haylna Hutchins.

It is the maximum sentence imposed for the crimes he was charged with found guilty by a jury on March 6 for the incident that occurred during the filming of this ‘western’.

The 27-year-old, who is responsible for the security and storage of firearms, has been cleared of a separate charge of tampering with evidence.

The Office of the State Attorney General has argued at trial that the gun regulator failed to implement critical safety checks, allowing bullets to reach the set due to her mistakes, claiming her actions contributed to Hutchins’ death.

However, the defense attorney of the suspect indicated during the trial that the fault did not lie with the weapons supervisor, but that her client was used as a scapegoat. For example, he has questioned how the ammunition got onto the set and claimed that the production team created an unsafe environment that created “really difficult conditions.”

On October 21, 2021, actor Alec Baldwin accidentally shot the director of photography while he was filming a scene and with a gun that was supposed to be blank but was loaded for unknown reasons. Both Baldwin and the gunsmith, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, were formally charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Gutiérrez-Reed is the first person to be tried in the case, which puts a spotlight on the film industry’s safety standards.