A judge heard arguments on whether to dismiss a criminal conviction against a movie armourer in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by actor Alec Baldwin and said she will rule next week on whether to scuttle the case or order a retrial.
In a remote court hearing, a lawyer for Hannah Gutierrez-Reed challenged her March conviction for involuntary manslaughter, alleging that prosecutors failed to share evidence including ammunition that might have been exculpatory in the shooting death that occurred on the set of the Western movie Rust in 2021.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer is reconsidering the armourer’s felony conviction after throwing out an involuntary manslaughter case against Baldwin mid-trial on similar grounds.
Jason Bowles, lead defence lawyer for Gutierrez-Reed, said: “This pattern of (evidence) discovery abuse occurred in Ms Gutierrez-Reed’s case in the same manner that it did in Mr Baldwin’s case.”
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer for Rust, was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal on a movie ranch outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the revolver went off, killing Ms Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the revolver fired.
Ms Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case against Baldwin based on the withholding of evidence by police and prosecutors.
The case-ending evidence was ammunition that was brought into the sheriff’s office in March by a man who said it could be related to Ms Hutchins’ killing.
Prosecutors said they deemed the ammunition unrelated and unimportant, while Baldwin’s lawyers alleged that they “buried” it and filed a successful motion to dismiss the case.
In her decision to dismiss the Baldwin case, Ms Marlowe Sommer described “egregious discovery violations constituting misconduct” by law enforcement and prosecutors, as well as false testimony about physical evidence by a witness during the trial.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey said at Thursday’s hearing that defence counsel for Gutierrez-Reed knew of the ammunition in question prior to the armourer’s trial but declined to enter it into the court record or have it tested to see whether it matched live ammunition on the set of Rust.
Mr Bowles said he did not collect the ammunition himself because of concerns that it would alter the chain of custody and possibly disqualify the evidence from consideration at trial.
He asked the judge to disqualify Ms Morrissey from the case in the event of a retrial and is seeking the immediate release of Gutierrez-Reed from incarceration.
Gutierrez-Reed started serving an 18-month sentence in March and has appealed the jury’s guilty verdict to a state appeals court.
Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set and for failing to follow basic gun safety protocols.
She was acquitted at trial of allegations she tampered with evidence in the Rust investigation.
Gutierrez-Reed also has pleaded not guilty to a separate felony charge that she allegedly carried a gun into a bar in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where firearms are prohibited.
A proposed plea agreement is awaiting court review.
Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyers have also said that prosecutors failed to disclose portions of pre-trial interviews with Rust ammunition supplier Seth Kenney — as well as reports by firearms expert Lucien Haag and correspondence with expert movie armourer Bryan Carpenter — that might have changed the outcome of the armourer’s trial.
