The chief weapons handler on Rust was sentenced to 18 months in prison for the 2021 fatal, on-set shooting of the movie’s cinematographer Halyna Hutchins by actor Alec Baldwin.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in March and her punishment is the most substantial criminal consequence yet in the legal fallout over Hutchins’ death. But the case, which has captivated Hollywood and the US, is still far from over.
The trial for Baldwin, who was both an actor and co-producer on the film, is set for 10 July after a grand jury indicted him for involuntary manslaughter.
A Santa Fe jury on 6 March took less than two hours to find Gutierrez-Reed guilty of involuntary manslaughter, with one juror afterwards saying the defendant had not done “her job” to ensure weapons safety on set.
During the trial, prosecutors accused Gutierrez-Reed of failing to follow essential safety procedures and said the weapons supervisor had loaded the fully functioning revolver used by Baldwin with dummy rounds and at least one live round. The shooting killed Hutchins, 42, and wounded the film’s director, Joel Souza.
“She was negligent, she was careless, she was thoughtless,” said Kari Morrissey, the prosecutor.
The shooting fueled outcry about dangerous working conditions in Hollywood. Crew members who testified at Gutierrez-Reed’s trial had described a chaotic set where safety was “secondary” with one stating that production had been working at “ludicrous speeds”.
Hutchins’ death initially prompted US film and television productions to stop using real firearms and blank ammunition. Two and a half years later, they are returning as productions favor their realistic effects, according to armorers.
Baldwin shot Hutchins to death when he pointed his gun at the cinematographer and the weapon fired the live round as she set up a camera shot. The actor denies pulling the trigger. The FBI and an independent firearms expert found the gun would not fire without the trigger depressed.
Baldwin is accused of causing Hutchins’s death either by negligence or “total disregard or indifference” for safety. Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney had argued that she was being used as a scapegoat and that Baldwin was responsible for what occurred.
“It was not in the script for Mr Baldwin to point the weapon,” defense attorney Jason Bowles said during the trial. “She didn’t know that Mr Baldwin was going to do what he did.”
Previous on-set fatal shootings of actors Brandon Lee in 1993 and Jon-Erik Hexum in 1984 involved blank rounds.
Reuters contributed to this report