A movie weapons armorer is appealing her conviction for involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western film "Rust," according to court documents released Tuesday.
A defense attorney filed the shortly worded appeal notice as Hannah Gutierrez-Reed serves an 18-month sentence at a New Mexico penitentiary for women. Her attorneys have 30 days to submit detailed arguments.
Prosecutors blame Gutierrez-Reed for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of "Rust," where it was expressly prohibited, and for failing to follow basic gun-safety protocols. A jury convicted her in state court in March.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer of the film, was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal when the gun went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza.
Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to a charge of involuntary manslaughter and says he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the gun fired. His trial is scheduled for July.
Gutierrez-Reed was acquitted of an evidence tampering charge at trial, and still confronts separate court proceedings on allegations she carried a firearm into a bar in downtown Santa Fe.
A New Mexico judge last month found that Gutierrez-Reed's recklessness on the "Rust" set amounted to a serious violent offense, noting few indications of genuine remorse in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Gutierrez-Reed said at a sentencing hearing she had tried to do her best on the set despite not having "proper time, resources and staffing," and that she was not the monster that people have made her out to be. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said the maximum sentence was appropriate.
Juliette Welfling Takes On A Musical, A Crime Thriller, Comedy and Drama In “Emelia Pérez”
Editor Juliette Welfling has a track record of close-knit, heartfelt collaboration with writer-director Jacques Audiard, a four-time BAFTA Award nominee for Best Film not in the English Language--starting with The Beat That My Heart Skipped in 2006, then A Prophet in 2010, Rust and Bone in 2013, and Dheepan in 2017. He won for The Beat That My Heart Skipped and A Prophet.
Welfling cut three of those features: A Prophet, Rust and Bone, and Dheepan. And that shared filmography has since grown to most recently include Emelia Pérez, the Oscar buzz-worthy film from Netflix. Welfling herself is not stranger to Academy Award banter. In fact, she earned a Best Achievement in Film Editing Oscar nomination in 2008 for director Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
Emelia Pérez is a hybrid musical/drama/thriller which introduces us to a talented but undervalued lawyer named Rita (portrayed by Zoe Saldana) who receives a lucrative offer out of the blue from a feared drug cartel boss who’s looking to retire from his sordid business and disappear forever by becoming the woman he’s always dreamt of being (Karla Sofía Gascón in a dual role as Manitas Del Monte/Emilia Pérez). Rita helps pull this off, orchestrating the faked death of Del Monte who leaves behind a widow (Jessi, played by Selena Gomez) and kids. While living comfortably and contently in her/their new identity, Pérez misses the children. Pérez once again enlists Rita--this time to return to family life, reuniting with the kids by pretending to be their aunt, the sister of Del Monte. Now as an aunt, Pérez winds up adopting a more altruistic bent professionally,... Read More