‘Rust’ Armorer Gets April Sentencing Date For Fatal 2021 Shooting On Indie Western; Faces Up To 18 Months Behind Bars

Found guilty of involuntary manslaughter last week out of the fatal 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, former Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed  will find out her incarceration fate in just over a month.

Today New Mexico Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer designated a sentencing hearing for April 15 at 10 am local time.

Relatively inexperienced armorer Gutierrez-Reed was charged in January 2023 with involuntary manslaughter and later evidence tampering. She faced up to three years in state prison if found guilty on both charges. After a two-week trial and the jury reaching its verdict in less than three hours on March 6. The seven women and five men found Gutierrez-Reed guilty of the first charge and innocent of the second. With the split verdict, the most Gutierrez-Reed could potentially receive now is about 18 months and a fine of several thousand dollars.

Hutchins was killed by a Colt .45 in the hands of Rust star/producer Alec Baldwin on the Bonanza Creek Ranch set of the low-budget Western on October 21, 2021. The live rounds that got in the gun, also injured director Joel Souza. Set to go to criminal trial himself in July and facing numerous civil suits, Baldwin has always insisted he never pulled the trigger on the gun – a judgement the FBI and other investigators profoundly disagree with.

Despite the protests of defense lawyers, Judge Sommer ordered Gutierrez-Reed taken into custody immediately after the verdict. She has been held in a facility close to the Santa Fe County courthouse ever since.

Recharged with involuntary slaughter in late January, Baldwin also is looking at some four figure fines and around 18 months in state prison in the Land of Enchantment if found guilty by the jury in his trial this summer.