‘Rust’ Armorer Files to Have New Trial or Conviction Tossed, Demands Immediate Release
Following the dismissal of the manslaughter case against Alec Baldwin for the death of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, an attorney for the film’s armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed has filed for her conviction to be overturned or for a new trial.
Either way, lawyer Jason Bowles is asking for his client to be released immediately, according to documents obtained by TheWrap.
“Justice demands that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s conviction be overturned immediately, ensuring that the legal system does not perpetuate this core affront to our system that has been watched all over the world,” Tuesday’s filing reads, citing “egregious prosecutorial misconduct.”
Baldwin, who was a producer of the ill-fated western as well as its star, was on trial for the October 2021 accidental killing of Hutchins.
On the third day of Baldwin’s trial, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer granted the defense’s request for a dismissal after it emerged that authorities and prosecutors deliberately withheld evidence in the case. How real bullets got into Baldwin’s gun that fatally wounded Hutchins is still a mystery.
Gutierrez-Reed was separately convicted of involuntary manslaughter in March and is currently serving her 18-month prison sentence.
Bowles and his fellow attorney of record Monnica L. Barreras state that special prosecutor Kari Morrissey was “in on the decision to hide the rounds and report on them in another file.”
They also allege that crime scene technician Marissa Poppell and Morrissey misled the jury on July 11 when they claimed the rounds from ammunition supplier Troy Teske were not similar to those found on the set of “Rust.”
“That was proven false a day later when this Court opened the box and inspected the Teske rounds,” the filing notes.
“The State withheld bombshell exculpatory evidence that it had a constitutional
obligation to disclose and that would have resulted in a fundamentally different trial and likely a different outcome [for Gutierrez-Reed],” her attorneys say.
“It was only on May 31, 2024 — by which time Ms. Gutierrez-Reed was already at the Western New Mexico Women’s Prison in Grants for intake and classification — that special prosecutor Morrissey admitted to Mr. Baldwin’s counsel that the State ‘fail[ed] to disclose’ a key report for almost nine months,” they continue.
The report further indicates that there were unknown markings on the bullets, contrary to the trial testimony of criminologist Lucien Haag. If that information had come out during her trial, her lawyers argue, Gutierrez-Reed would have been able to claim that “unexplained alterations to the firearm caused it to fire without anyone pulling the trigger.”
Her lawyers also state that this missing evidence was the “critical factor in the jury’s decision” to convict their client.
Lastly, they allege that prosecutors withheld the written statements of witness Seth Kenney, including that he had never heard allegations that Gutierrez-Reed was acting in an “unsafe” manner onset.
The post ‘Rust’ Armorer Files to Have New Trial or Conviction Tossed, Demands Immediate Release appeared first on TheWrap.