SANTA FE, New Mexico: Hannah Gutierrez, the chief weapons handler for the Western movie “Rust,” was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Monday in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was shot when actor Alec Baldwin was handling a gun during the film’s production in 2021.
In March, Gutierrez, 27, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for mistakenly loading a live round into a revolver Baldwin was using on a Santa Fe, New Mexico, movie set. “You turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon,” Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer told Gutierrez as she handed down the sentence.
In video calls and the courtroom during the hearing, Hutchins’ friends from the film industry paid tribute to her creativity and kindness. They also lambasted Gutierrez’s breaches in firearms safety protocol.