‘Rust’ Armorer Reaches Tentative Plea Agreement Over Separate Gun Charge
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who worked as an armorer on the set of the Alec Baldwin-led film Rust, has reached a plea agreement to bringing a gun into the Matador bar in Santa Fe, New Mexico, according to court documents reviewed by Rolling Stone.
The 27-year-old is currently serving 18 months in prison after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter in connection to the on-set death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. A Santa Fe jury determined that Gutierrez-Reed loaded a live bullet into Baldwin’s gun, leading to the death of Hutchins.
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The bar incident is said to have occurred in October 2021, around three weeks before Hutchins was killed. The indictment emerged last fall, at which point the manslaughter conviction was still pending. Gutierrez has “accepted a plea agreement” with the prosecution, according to a defense motion, though a plea hearing has yet to be scheduled.
In July, Gutierrez-Reed requested for a dismissal of her conviction after Baldwin’s manslaughter case was permanently dismissed. Baldwin’s defense lawyers filed an emergency motion alleging prosecutors and investigators withheld evidence, and the court granted the motion for dismissal with prejudice.
“This Court stated on July 12 that the integrity of the judicial system demanded that the court dismiss Mr. Baldwin’s case with prejudice. How can it be any different with Ms. Gutierrez Reed’s case, with this proven litany of serious discovery abuses?” Gutierrez-Reed’s defense lawyer Jason Bowles argued in a 23-page motion. “Justice demands that Hannah Gutierrez Reed’s conviction be overturned immediately, ensuring that the legal system does not perpetuate this core affront to our system, that has been watched all over the world.”
Gutierrez-Reed received the maximum sentence for her role in Hutchins’ death, with Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer saying: “You alone turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon. But for you, Ms. Hutchins would be alive, a husband would have his partner, and a little boy would have his mother.”
This post has been updated on September 5th at 2:15 p.m. EST to reflect that Gutierrez-Reed reached a tentative plea agreement in the case.
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