“Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed blasted the jurors who convicted her of manslaughter charges in recorded jail phone conversations as “idiots” and “a--holes” and complained that they took only two hours to deliberate, according to a recent filing by prosecutors.
Those crude comments by Gutierrez-Reed were among the revelations made by prosecutors ahead of her sentencing on Monday. Gutierrez-Reed also said she wants Alec Baldwin, who was handling the gun that fired the fatal shot on the movie set in 2021, to go to jail, too, and that she won’t testify at his upcoming criminal trial if subpoenaed.
Prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis contend these comments show why Gutierrez-Reed should not receive a conditional discharge, which is what her lawyers are seeking.
Prosecutors are seeking the maximum penalty of 18 months in prison. They write in the filing that Gutierrez-Reed’s conversations with her mom, boyfriend and her attorney’s paralegal demonstrate her “complete and total failure to accept responsibility for her actions.”
Gutierrez-Reed’s nearly two-week criminal trial centered on her role in the October 2021 “Rust” film set shooting. Baldwin held a prop gun that fired a live round, killing the film’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins. The bullet also injured director Joel Souza.
“Hannah wants them to put Alec Baldwin in jail also,” prosecutors wrote. Gutierrez-Reed said that if she is subpoenaed for Baldwin’s trial she will not show up because “she shouldn’t be subpoenaed if Baldwin didn’t show up for her,” the filing said.
According to the filing, Gutierrez-Reed requested her legal team ask Hutchins’ widower and son to speak on her behalf at the sentencing. She has also complained about how the shooting has negatively affected her life and modeling career, “while never expressing genuine remorse at any time,” the filing states.
Prosecutors said Gutierrez-Reed brought live rounds on set by failing to properly inspect the “dummy” rounds she provided to the set and failed to check the rounds that were later confirmed as live ammo in one actor’s gun belt and Alec Baldwin’s revolver.
The filing also notes that Gutierrez-Reed has another felony charge pending for allegedly hiding a firearm from security at a New Mexico bar and sneaking it into the venue. The filing says, “Upon successfully circumventing the security at the bar she went into the restroom and made a selfie video stating ‘They checked my purse but they didn’t cheek my butt cheeks! Wah, wah, wah.’”
When asked for comment on the jail calls revealed by the prosecution, defense attorney Jason Bowles said Saturday, “We will be filing a reply most likely tomorrow.”
According to the prosecutors’ filing, the jail calls include mentions of other inmates saying, “I can’t believe they threw your pretty little white ass in here for nothing”; and that Gutierrez-Reed likes tap water and hard jail beds and thinks the “cat food isn’t too bad.”
Gutierrez-Reed also talked about the witnesses, who she said lied and said “she didn’t need to be shaking the dummies all the time,” the filing said.
“Hannah thinks the producers should be in jail while complaining about first assistant director Dave Halls and how he ‘f---ed Hannah to save his own ass,’” the filing said.
During his emotional trial testimony, Halls said he should have checked the gun more thoroughly and admitted that he “did an improper check of that firearm.”
Halls, who also served as the film’s safety coordinator, pleaded no contest to negligent use of a deadly weapon last year and as part of a plea deal was sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation.
Baldwin’s defense team has asked the judge to dismiss manslaughter charges against the actor over concerns that testimony was “unfairly stacking the deck” against him in grand jury proceedings by diverting attention away from exculpatory evidence and witnesses.
Prosecutors said they offered Baldwin a “very favorable plea agreement,” similar to what David Halls got, but rescinded the offer after learning that Baldwin planned to accept the deal and create a documentary with interviews from case witnesses.
Baldwin is scheduled to go to trial in July.
