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Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the armorer for the movie Rust, was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Monday (April 15). Last month, she was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for the fatal, on-set shooting of the film's cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Hutchins was killed when a gun being used by actor Alec Baldwin was discharged while he was rehearsing a scene. The movie's assistant director, Joel Souza, was injured in the accidental shooting.
Baldwin claims he was told the revolver was not loaded with live ammunition at the time.
Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez Reed for Hutchins' death, saying that she was lax with firearm safety on set and violated safety protocols with handling the weapons. They noted that she failed to perform safety checks on the revolver used in the fatal shooting and was not on set when Baldwin fired the fatal shot.
"This is not a case where Hannah Gutierrez made one mistake, and that one mistake was accidentally putting a live round into that gun," prosecutor Kari Morrissey said during closing arguments. "This case is about constant, never-ending safety failures that resulted in the death of a human being and nearly killed another."
Her defense placed the blame on the film's producers, managers, and other crew members.
Alec Baldwin, who was a producer on the film as well, was also charged with involuntary manslaughter. He is expected to go on trial in July.