‘Rust’ Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed Formally Files To Appeal Conviction

On October 21, 2021, a gun held by Alec Baldwin went off, striking and killing Hutchins and director Joel Souza. Souza was hospitalized but later recovered. Hutchins died while en route to receive medical treatment in Albuquerque.

On Monday, May 13, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed filed an appeal with the New Mexico Court of Appeals over her guilty verdict. Her attorneys are also trying to appeal the denial of her pretrial motions and have put forward a motion to dismiss on multiple grounds, according to CNN.

Earlier this month, her attorneys attempted to get her dismissed from prison while awaiting her appeal, arguing that she is “not a danger to the community or a flight risk.” In the motion for her release, her attorneys wrote, “Ms. Gutierrez Reed is requesting to be released while she appeals, as if her appeal is successful, she will have served most or all of her sentence anyway, rendering a large part of the appeal meaningless.”

Although she did not testify in her own defense, Gutierrez-Reed read a statement aloud in court during the sentencing hearing, saying, “First and foremost, my heart aches for the Hutchins family and friends and colleagues as well, and it has since the day this tragedy occurred.”

She called Hutchins “an inspiration to me” and “I understand that she was taken too soon, and I pray that you all find peace.”

Gutierrez-Reed admitted that she was “young and naive” when she took the job and went on to say that she is “saddened by the way media sensationalized our traumatic tragedy and portrayed me as a complete monster, which has actually been the total opposite of what’s been in my heart.”

“I beg you please don’t give me more time,” Gutierrez-Reed pleaded as she and her lawyers requested probation. “The jury has found me in part at fault for this God-awful tragedy but that doesn’t make me a monster. That makes me human.”

Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer told the rookie armorer, “You alone turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon,” adding, “But for you, Ms. Hutchins would be alive, a husband would have his partner, and a little boy would have his mother.”

“I did not hear you take accountability,” the judge said during her sentencing. “Your attorney had to tell the court you were remorseful.” The 18-month sentence that the judge handed down was the maximum that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed could receive under New Mexico law.

Before Monday’s sentencing, special prosecutor Kari Morrissey called the trial an “unprecedented case” and told the court that she wanted the maximum sentence for the rookie armorer. In addition, she also wanted her to be designated as a “serious violent offender.” She went on to say that she wished that the former “Rust” armorer would have “expressed some level of remorse that was genuine.”

Since being incarcerated, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed made almost 200 calls, according to Deadline. During these calls, the rookie armorer refused to take any accountability for what happened on set. Instead, the 26-year-old was heard calling the jurors of seven women and five men “retards,” “idiots” and “a–holes.” She also referenced “Rust” first assistant director David Halls, who made a plea deal with prosecutors and testified against Gutierrez-Reed at the trial. She claims that he “f—ed” her in order to “save his own a–.”

Gloria Allred, who is representing Halyna Hutchins’ mother, father, and sister in a “Rust” civil suit, showed the court a video of Halyna Hutchins’ mother from Ukraine. Olga Androsovych expressed that she was upset that Alec Baldwin, nor anyone else from the “Rust” set, attended her daughter’s funeral at the Hollywood Forever cemetery.

In a short statement, director Joel Souza also discussed Halyna Hutchins’s passing. “What I want is simply not possible, I want that none of this ever happened,” he told the court. “One moment the world made sense and the next minute it didn’t.”

“I want everyone damaged by Ms. Reed’s failures that day to find peace,” he added, putting an emphasis on the way the late cinematographer’s husband, son, and family have suffered.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney, Jason Bowles, said that he planned to appeal the verdict immediately after the sentencing hearing.

Alec Baldwin’s trial, which will also be overseen by Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, will start on July 9.