CBS News
“Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed to be sentenced Monday in deadly 2021 shooting
![](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/03/06/1039ff0c-4903-45ed-9747-d6f520e20e11/thumbnail/1200x630/06c796ead1b3eab2932ab01d9116112a/ap24066840603415.jpg?v=c0ff3069549804234360eec4c5e30dea)
The “Rust” armorer who last month was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the deadly shooting of Halyna Hutchins, the film’s cinematographer, is scheduled to be sentenced today in a New Mexico state court. Hannah Gutierrez-Reed faces up to 18 months in prison for her part in the 2021 tragedy that several experts have since characterized as a preventable incident, where actor Alec Baldwin discharged live rounds from a prop gun on the movie set during a rehearsal.
Last month, a jury convicted Gutierrez-Reed on the involuntary manslaughter charge, brought against her by the state of New Mexico in the wake of the “Rust” shooting. The 27-year-old former weapons supervisor on the Western film could also receive a fine for as much as $5,000, along with prison time, at the sentencing hearing in Sante Fe. She had originally been charged with a second felony count by the state for evidence tampering but was acquitted at the trial.
Authorities took Gutierrez-Reed into custody once the verdicts were read. Her defense blamed the film’s management for the shooting, arguing that serious safety issues existed on the “Rust” set that were outside of her purview. Her defense attorneys zeroed in on the fact that the movie’s primary ammunition supplier had apparently not been investigated.
Gabriela Campos/The New Mexican/Pool via Reuters
Gutierrez-Reed, the daughter of an established Hollywood armorer, had previously pleaded not guilty to both charges. After the jury delivered its verdicts on March 6, Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney, Jason Bowles, told CBS News that he planned to appeal “a number of issues that occurred in the trial.” But subsequent case filings show that the defense’s attempts to secure a new trial with her release, and, then, her conditional release, in the aftermath of the conviction were quickly denied by the state.
Prosecutors had throughout the trial painted Gutierrez-Reed as careless and irresponsible, with the aim of convincing jurors that her negligence and “willful disregard” for the safety of others ultimately endangered her “Rust” colleagues and caused Hutchins’ death. The state sought the maximum prison sentence for Gutierrez-Reed’s manslaughter conviction as prosecutors said she appeared not to display any signs of remorse over the fatal incident in court.
Additional documents filed in the case reference at least one more felony charge related to weapons handling against Gutierrez-Reed in New Mexico, which is still pending, for allegedly “intentionally hiding a firearm from security at a local bar to get the firearm into the bar” after her arrival in the state for filming. Prosecutors said she went on to record a selfie video in the bar restroom boasting about her successful ruse and flashing “a nickel-plated semi-automatic pistol” toward the camera. The state has also accused her of possessing cocaine while working as the firearms expert on “Rust,” which is considered a felony, too, in New Mexico.
The allegation involving illegal substance use was presented as evidence during Gutierrez-Reed’s trial earlier this year. The trial itself ran slightly over two weeks and mainly centered around the origins of six live bullets that were found on the set of “Rust” as investigators began their probe into the shooting on Oct. 21, 2021. That day, Baldwin was rehearsing a scene for “Rust,” to be filmed at some unspecified future time, with Hutchins and Joel Souza, the film’s writer and director.
Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office via AP, File
Their rehearsal happened on set at the Bonanza Creek Ranch, a popular filming location for Western movies on the outskirts of Santa Fe, and primarily focused on Baldwin drawing a .45-caliber revolver from a holster, while in character, and pointing the gun in the direction of Hutchins and Souza as they watched the scene unfold from behind a monitor. On one draw, the weapon fired and discharged live bullets, one of which passed through Hutchins before striking Souza. Hutchins was pronounced dead at an area hospital less than two hours later. Souza was injured but survived.
The revolver should never have contained live ammunition, according to industry-wide regulations and union guidelines governing the use of firearms on film sets, and the Santa Fe district attorney’s office had said in their initial probable cause statement that evidence indicated the scene Baldwin was rehearsing should not have even required the use of blanks. Inert dummy rounds would have sufficed instead, the statement alleged, and cited expert weapons consultants who noted that a plastic or replica gun should have been used during the rehearsal.
It was Gutierrez-Reed’s responsibility to manage the weapons being used on the “Rust” set, including the gun that discharged and fatally hit Hutchins, the district attorney’s office said. But there are conflicting accounts as to how exactly live ammunition could have ended up in the revolver. The probable cause statement at first alleged that Gutierrez-Reed had loaded the .45 prior to taking a lunch break on Oct. 21, stored it, and retrieved it after lunch before handing it off, without performing the necessary safety checks, to the first assistant director, David Halls.
Jae C. Hong / AP
Halls already served six months of unsupervised parole for negligent use of a firearm, after pleading no contest and admitting that he improperly handled the weapon that fired on the film set. He gave emotional testimony in court during Gutierrez-Reed’s trial, saying that she had twice handed over the revolver to Baldwin during the Oct. 21 rehearsal — first, without any ammunition, and a second time, with five dummy rounds and one live bullet.
Gutierrez-Reed said in a statement released through her attorneys in November 2021 that she did complete a proper safety check on the .45 revolver prior to handing it over and did not know how live ammunition wound up inside the gun.
“No one could have anticipated or thought that someone would introduce live rounds into this set,” the statement read. Gutierrez-Reed also said that she had instructed actors involved in “Rust” not to point guns at other people on set.
Baldwin has insisted that he pulled back the hammer of the revolver during that Oct. 21 rehearsal, but did not pull the trigger. Since the shooting, the actor has settled a lawsuit with Hutchins’ family, filed one against several members of the “Rust” crew, including Gutierrez-Reed, for negligence, and pleaded not guilty to a charge against him for involuntary manslaughter. That case has not yet gone to trial.
CBS News
6/28: CBS Evening News – CBS News
![](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/06/29/e59c02b2-d316-4961-ac7f-610aa8d21dfa/thumbnail/1200x630/d126bb6ea7c42fecc6ee7c069d3427eb/0628-en-full-3018758-640x360.jpg?v=a23cb4bdf4fa7f3cb72e5118085577f9)
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
CBS News
Tropical Storm Beryl forms in Atlantic, forecast to strengthen into hurricane
![](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/06/29/38e5c3c6-8476-40b7-8aa0-fcaa3409b98f/thumbnail/1200x630/b560ae542efe89f0b2a8be3bd2159cee/beryl-2.jpg?v=a23cb4bdf4fa7f3cb72e5118085577f9)
Beryl, the second tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, took shape Friday as it barreled its way toward the Caribbean.
Beryl was expected to strengthen into a hurricane as it approached the Windward Islands in the West Indies, the National Hurricane Center reported in its latest advisory late Friday night.
Beryl was centered about 1,110 miles southeast of Barbados, the hurricane center said, with maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour and tropical storm-force winds extending 45 miles from its center. It was moving west at 18 mph.
The system was expected to hit the Windward Islands by late Sunday or Monday, and was forecast to bring anything from 3 to 6 inches of rain to the Windward Islands and Barbados. No watches or warnings were yet in place.
NOAA
Last week, Tropical Storm Alberto brought torrential flooding to portions of southern Texas and northeastern Mexico. It was responsible for at least four deaths in the Mexican states of Nuevo Leon and Veracruz, according to the Associated Press.
The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1 and lasts through Nov. 30. According to the hurricane center, the season’s first hurricane usually forms in early to mid-August, which would make Beryl unusual if it were to reach hurricane strength. In a report released last month, the NOAA predicted an “above average” hurricane season with 17 to 25 storms, 8 to 13 hurricanes and 4 to 7 major hurricanes of category 3 or higher.
A tropical storm is a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 39 to 73 mph, while a hurricane is defined as a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds greater than 74 mph.
CBS News
Martin Mull, beloved actor known for “Fernwood 2 Night,” “Roseanne” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” dies at 80
![](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/06/29/acaaef30-2e2c-48cf-ae53-3cfbd6f6233e/thumbnail/1200x630/c459c90cfc9c4ba69f060d82535d5db8/gettyimages-909977820.jpg?v=a23cb4bdf4fa7f3cb72e5118085577f9)
Martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms including “Roseanne” and “Arrested Development,” has died, his daughter said Friday. He was 80.
Mull’s Daughter, TV writer and comic artist Maggie Mull, said her father died at home on Thursday after “a valiant fight against a long illness.”
Mull, who was also a guitarist and painter, came to national fame with a recurring role on the Norman Lear-created satirical soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” and the starring role in its spinoff, “Fernwood 2 Night,” on which he played the host of a satirical talk show.
Mat Hayward/Getty Images for Netflix
“He was known for excelling at every creative discipline imaginable and also for doing Red Roof Inn commercials,” Maggie Mull said in an Instagram post. “He would find that joke funny. He was never not funny. My dad will be deeply missed by his wife and daughter, by his friends and coworkers, by fellow artists and comedians and musicians, and —the sign of a truly exceptional person— by many, many dogs.”
Melissa Joan Hart, who acted alongside Mull in the series “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” paid tribute to him on Instagram on Friday, calling him “a wonderful man who I am better for knowing.”
“I have such fond memories of working with him and being in awe of his huge body of work,” she wrote.
Known for his blonde hair and well-trimmed mustache, Mull was born in Chicago, raised in Ohio and Connecticut. He studied art in Rhode Island and Rome. He combined his music and comedy in hip Hollywood clubs in the 1970s.
“In 1976 I was a guitar player and sit-down comic appearing at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip when Norman Lear walked in and heard me,” Mull told The Associated Press in 1980. “He cast me as the wife beater on ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.’ Four months later I was spun off on my own show.”
In the 1980s he appeared in films including “Mr. Mom” and “Clue,” and in the 1990s had a recurring role on “Roseanne.”
He would later play private eye Gene Parmesan on “Arrested Development,” and would be nominated for an Emmy in 2016 for a guest turn on “Veep.”