The trial didn’t exactly get to the bottom of how the live rounds got on set. However, she was a disaster and it was clear from the evidence presented that she did not thoroughly check all ammo on set. Overall, the trial was relatively boring, other than a defense expert pointing a gun at the judge and the bailiff having to intervene.

Some observations:
- her defense lawyer wasn’t very good, but, to be fair, he didn’t have much to work with
- prosecutor was very good from an argument standpoint, however, she could be very condescending to the defense attorney as well as hostile witnesses. If she’s prosecutor, and Baldwin takes the stand, it will be must see TV! I can see Baldwin going Col Jessop on stand
- the whole production was a train wreck from a safety standpoint. One clip showed Baldwin using a gun as a pointer to direct where people were to go. This was to show how the armorer let lax standards happen on set.
- Baldwin has an up hill battle - facts and law are not on his side
- Baldwin will have excellent attorneys. Expect them to throw so much crap (a la OJ’s defense) to confuse and deflect that Baldwin was the one who pointed the gun at people and someone died
- The fact that the FBI had to destroy the gun to get it to fire without pulling the trigger to me is a point Baldwin’s team will attack very hard. I.E., the defense didn’t get a chance to do their own examination of the gun as it was they day Baldwin handled it
-if you’re involved in something where someone has died, use your right to remain silent! The armorer basically admitted to involuntary manslaughter in her police interviews, as did Baldwin.

BREAKING NEWS

The armorer on the film “Rust,” who loaded a live round into a revolver that went off on the set in 2021 and killed its cinematographer, was sentenced on Monday to 18 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter.

The sentence was the maximum that the armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, could receive.

In her manslaughter trial last month, prosecutors argued that Ms. Gutierrez-Reed had been repeatedly reckless in her job of managing weapons and ammunition, directly causing the tragedy on Oct. 21, 2021, when the gun that Alec Baldwin was practicing drawing from his shoulder holster fired a live bullet, killing the cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins.

Mr. Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge. His trial is scheduled for July, though a judge is currently weighing a motion from his defense to dismiss the indictment.

The sentencing by Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer came after prosecutors released summaries of calls that Ms. Gutierrez-Reed had made from jail, where she was sent after her conviction.

Prosecutors used the calls, during which Ms. Gutierrez-Reed calls the jurors in her case “idiots,” to argue that she should receive the highest possible sentence. The call summaries include Ms. Gutierrez-Reed saying that the judge was on a “power trip” and alleging, without evidence, that the judge was “getting paid off.”

Judge Marlowe Sommer said during the hearing that giving Ms. Gutierrez-Reed less than the full sentence would be a “pass” that she did not deserve, citing the jail calls as evidence of a lack of remorse.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Who's the idiot?