‘Rust’ Movie Armorer Released From Prison After Manslaughter Conviction for On-set Shooting

Hannah Gutierrez Reed served 18-months behind bars in connection to the 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the former armorer at the movie "Rust," listens to closing arguments in her trial at district court in Santa Fe, N.M., on March 6, 2024. Luis Sánchez Saturno/Santa Fe New Mexican via AP

Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the armorer convicted of manslaughter in the fatal shooting on the set of the movie “Rust,” is released from prison.

Gutierrez-Reed was released on May 23 from the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility, after serving 18 months behind bars.

In March 2024, a jury found Gutierrez-Reed guilty of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

She was also found not guilty on a separate charge of tampering with evidence.

At the time of filming, actor Alec Baldwin was holding a Colt .45 while preparing for a scene when the gun went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.

Prosecutors argued that Gutierrez-Reed was inexperienced and a number of failures led to the tragedy.

The prosecution said Gutierrez-Reed brought live ammunition on set and inadvertently loaded it into the revolver, adding it was “the combination of Hannah Gutierrez’s negligence and inexperience and Alec Baldwin’s complete lack of concern for the safety of those around him.”

She was sentenced to the maximum penalty, while Baldwin, who was also charged with involuntary manslaughter, had his case dismissed with prejudice in July 2024.

Gutierrez-Reed was granted parole through May of next year, and upon her supervised release in Arizona, she is required to follow parole guidelines, which include but are not limited to, electric monitoring, maintaining a curfew, and acquiring a job or school enrollment.

She is also serving 18 months of supervised probation for a separate case, after pleading guilty to carrying a gun unlawfully into a licensed liquor establishment.

The criminal charge stems from an incident in which Gutierrez-Reed carried a firearm into a downtown Santa Fe bar where firearms are prohibited, just weeks before filming for “Rust” began.

Filming was paused for more than a year following the on-set shooting, and production was eventually completed in Montana.

“Talk about the butterfly effect—I wish I never wrote the damn movie,” Souza told The Guardian prior to the film release. “You think about the chain of events that started that morning [of the shooting]. Bad decision after bad decision was made.”

Despite his hesitations, Souza noted Hutchins’ family vouched for its completion and dedicated the movie to honoring her with every cinematic decision.

“Rust” was released in a limited number of theaters across the nation earlier this month and is also through online streaming such as, Apple TV, Prime Video, and other on-demand platforms.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.