A movie set armorer is challenging her conviction on an involuntary manslaughter charge in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western film "Rust," court records released Monday show.
Defense attorneys for "Rust" armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed filed a request for a new trial and urged a judge to release the defendant from jail as deliberations proceed.
Gutierrez-Reed was convicted by a jury this month in the shooting on the outskirts of Santa Fe, New Mexico, during a rehearsal in October 2021. Baldwin was indicted by a grand jury in January and has pleaded not guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge, with trial set for July.
In an emergency court motion, defense attorneys Jason Bowles and Monnica Barreras asserted that the jury instructions in the case "could confuse the jury and lead to a nonunanimous verdict." Similar objections to the jury instructions were rejected at trial.
Gutierrez-Reed could be sentenced as soon as April 15 under the current scheduling orders from Santa Fe-based Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer.
Involuntary manslaughter carries a felony sentence of up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine. Gutierrez-Reed is being held pending sentencing at the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Facility.
Baldwin was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has maintained that he pulled back the gun's hammer, but not the trigger.
Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed at a two-week trial for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of "Rust" where it was expressly prohibited. They also said she failed to follow basic gun safety protocols.
"Rust" assistant director and safety coordinator Dave Halls last year pleaded no contest to negligent handling of a firearm and completed a sentence of six months unsupervised probation.
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More