Rust movie gun expert 'having tough time' in jail after manslaughter conviction

09 March 2024 , 16:15

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Hannah Gutierrez-Reed at the First Judicial District Courthouse in Santa Fe, New Mexico (Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

A gun expert who was found guilty of handing Hollywood star Alec Baldwin real bullets moments before Rust filmmaker Halyna Hutchins was shot dead is said to be "having a tough time" in jail.

Movie armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed will be staying in custody until she is sentenced. A date has not been set yet, but she faces up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 (£3,900) fine. She was found not guilty of her additional charge, tampering with evidence.

Prosecutors argued that she didn't maintain proper firearm safety multiple times. They argued that she brought live rounds on set and failed to perform industry-standard safety practices. However, her defense attorney, Jason Bowles, argued that no one knew there were live rounds.

READ MORE: Rust movie gun expert GUILTY of handing Alec Baldwin live bullets before filmmaker shot dead

She was booked in jail after the verdict (Santa Fe County Corrections)

Now, TMZ was told by her lawyer, Jason Bowles, that Gutierrez-Reed is having "a really difficult time" in the New Mexico detention centre where she is staying. Her family is said to be arranging a time to visit her - and her loved ones are said to be devastated by her guilty verdict.

Alec Baldwin accused of 'wilful disregard for others' safety' before Rust death

The armourer was booked into the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Facility after being found guilty on Wednesday. Her lawyer said they will be appealing her conviction in a bid to overturn the verdict and judgement, adding that everyone in the courtroom was shocked when the guilty verdict was returned.

Baldwin, the lead actor and a co-producer on the western movie, was indicted by a grand jury in January on a charge of involuntary manslaughter. He was pointing a gun at Hutchins on the movie set outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, when the gun went off, tragically killing Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.

Halyna Hutchins was killed on set

During the gun expert's trial, her attorney blamed Baldwin for "going off-script" when he pointed the gun at the filmmaker and, therefore, Gutierrez-Reed could not have known it would be fired. He said: "It was not in the script for Mr. Baldwin to point the weapon. She didn't know that Mr. Baldwin was going to do what he did."

Baldwin's previous indictment was dropped after he claimed the gun was defective and that he did not pull the trigger. However, the gun was broken, so the prosecutors temporarily dropped it while they investigated it further.

Ballistics experts were later able to reconstruct the gun and determined that the trigger would need to have been pulled for it to go off. The report from experts said: "This fatal incident was the consequence of the hammer being manually retracted to its fully rearward and cocked position followed, at some point, by the pull or rearward depression of the trigger."

Chiara Fiorillo