Vern Evans
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer for the movie Rust who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for actor Alec Baldwin shooting the movie’s cinematographer to death with a prop gun during filming, has again found herself in a New Mexico courtroom thanks to damning evidence found on her cell phone during the Rust investigation.
According to a report at theguardian.com, when investigators searched Gutierrez-Reed’s cellphone during the Rust investigation, they found a video of her with a handgun in the bathroom of a bar. In the self-filmed video, shot a few weeks before the movie’s filming began, she explained how she snuck the prohibited firearm into the establishment.
Gutierrez-Reed originally pleaded not guilty to a charge of carrying a gun into a licensed liquor establishment. But on Monday, she changed her plea to guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence of 18 months supervised probation.
After the sentencing, Gutierrez-Reed addressed the judge, saying, “I’d just like to apologize to the court and thank you for your judgment today.”
Gutierrez-Reed’s plea agreement prohibits her while on probation from possessing firearms, consuming alcohol or drugs and she must pay $180 in fees while submitting a sample of her DNA to a criminal database and completing an addiction treatment program. The agreement makes it possible for Gutierrez-Reed to be released from prison as soon as June 2025 to complete probation in Arizona.
Baldwin initially claimed he didn’t pull the trigger on the gun that fired the fatal shot. Amazingly he made that far-fetched claim despite the fact that cameras reportedly recorded the shooting.
He also faced an involuntary manslaughter charge when he went to trial for the Rust shooting back in July. But the charges against Baldwin were dropped when the judge in the case learned that the prosecution had failed to disclose some important evidence.
“There is no way for the court to right this wrong,” Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said in dismissing the charges.
That dismissal prompted Gutierrez-Reed to appeal her March conviction on the involuntary manslaughter charges. That appeal is still pending.
The high-profile trials stemmed from Baldwin shooting cinematographer Halyna Hutchins with what he assumed was a blank gun back on the set of Rust in October 2021. The film’s director, Joel Souza, was also injured by the shot.
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