My understanding is that 18 months is the maximum sentence possible for the particular charge on which she was convicted. So the judge couldn't go beyond that.
The producers of Rust haven't paid Hutchins' family yet a year after the settlement. But they didn't have a problem finishing the movie in that time.
https://variety.com/2024/film/news/rust-halyna-hutchins-alec-baldwin-settlement-late-1235935392/
Check this out at the end of Deadline's article about the verdict. Boldface emphasis mine.
https://deadline.com/2024/03/rust-movie-armorer-guilty-shooting-death-1235847983/
What distributor would want to touch this movie under these circumstances?
I don't really want to comment on legal stuff. That is for the courts to sort out.
But how is this movie ever going to be released? Rust has attained more notoriety than any other small indie film in recent memory, but absolutely none of that Is because of anything in the actual movie. It is...
We don't know what she would want because she is not here. But we do know that the film will include her work.
I know more about industry news than the average moviegoer, and I had never heard Hutchins' name prior to her death. I don't mean that to sound disparaging to her at all, just to...