Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer on the set of the Alec Baldwin movie Rust, was found guilty of manslaughter in the 2021 death of the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Now, her attorney Jason Bowles is speaking out to say that the 26 year-old is having a difficult time in jail as she awaits sentencing.
Gutierrez-Reed Struggling In Jail
Bowles told TMZ that Gutierrez-Reed is having a tough time handling life at a New Mexico detention center while she awaits sentencing as she faces up to 18 months in prison. He added that the courtroom was shocked when she was found guilty, and that she will be appealing the conviction.
“The evidence wasn’t sufficient to convict,” he said. “It was a lot of guesswork, a lot of speculation.”
Gutierrez-Reed was in charge of the guns on the set of Rust when Baldwin shot Hutchins with a prop gun that had been unknowingly loaded with live ammunition during a rehearsal taking place on a ranch in Santa Fe, according to The New York Post. After three hours of deliberations, a jury convicted Gutierrez-Reed of manslaughter, finding that she was ultimately responsible for the live rounds on set.
The jury found Gutierrez-Reed not guilty of a separate charge of tampering with evidence. She is set to be sentenced next month.
Related: Alec Baldwin To Be Hit With Criminal Charges For ‘Rust’ Shooting
Juror Speaks Out
“Someone died,” one of the jurors told Yahoo News after the verdict. “You gotta take responsibility. Especially when you’re handling weapons and you’re in charge of those. That’s your job.”
“She could have paused work, stopped, and cleared it all up, and just never did,” the juror added. “That was her job to check those rounds — those firearms. No one wanted to pay attention or do that sort of stuff and stop work.”
In order to find Gutierrez-Reed of involuntary manslaughter, the jurors had to agree that she acted with “willful disregard for the safety of others” and that the death was a “foreseeable” consequence of her actions.
Related: Alec Baldwin Blamed For Fatal Shooting By ‘Rust’ Armorer In New Lawsuit
Verdict Celebrated
Mary Carmack-Altwies, the elected district attorney in Santa Fe, celebrated the verdict.
“From the outset of this case, the FJDA’s sole pursuits were to bring justice to Halyna Hutchins’ family and friends and to ensure that those responsible for her death were held accountable,” Carmack-Altwies said. “In order to do so, the prosecution team exhausted investigative efforts which proved pivotal to successfully moving forward with this tragic and entirely preventable case.”
Gloria Allred, who has sued Baldwin and the other Rust producers on the behalf of Hutchins’ parents and sister, said that while she is “satisfied” with this verdict, her clients want to see everyone responsible to be held accountable.
“Today was the first trial and conviction in the criminal justice process,” Allred and co-counsel John Carpenter said in a statement. “We look forward to the justice system continuing to make sure that everyone else who is responsible for Halyna’s death is required to face the legal consequences for their actions.”
Baldwin is preparing to face his own manslaughter trial in July. Last year, the film’s first assistant director Dave Halls took a plea deal to a misdemeanor count of negligent handling of a gun and served six months of unsupervised probation.
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