Amid Baldwin furor, ‘Rust’ armorer Hannah Gutierrez wants her case dismissed too
Days after New Mexico’s case against Alec Baldwin collapsed amid allegations of evidence concealment in the “Rust” shooting, armorer Hannah Gutierrez asked a judge to dismiss her case as well.
Gutierrez’s lawyer, Jason Bowles, filed a 23-page motion late Tuesday asking that either Gutierrez’s involuntary manslaughter conviction be overturned or that she receive a new trial due to “severe and ongoing discovery violations by the state.” Bowles alleged the proceedings against Gutierrez were unfair because the state also withheld evidence in her case.
Gutierrez is currently serving an 18-month sentence for her role in the shooting death of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the low-budget western set on Oct. 21, 2021.
The move comes as New Mexico’s legal world reels from disclosures made during a dramatic hearing on Friday, in which New Mexico First Judicial Circuit Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the felony criminal charge against Baldwin — abruptly ending the actor’s high-profile trial.
The judge became alarmed after Baldwin’s attorneys alleged misconduct, including alleged collusion between the prosecutor and Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies to conceal potential evidence — a bag of ammunition — from defense attorneys.
A bag of cartridges that a retired law enforcement officer, Troy Teske, had turned over to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office in March after Gutierrez’s trial ended is at issue. Teske, a friend of Gutierrez’s stepfather Thell Reed, had offered the evidence to prosecutors late last fall, but special prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey declined.
Morrissey has said that, after looking at a photo of the cartridges, she determined they did not match the live “Rust” ammunition. The sheriff’s crime scene technician also testified last week that the bullets were not like those found on “Rust.”
However, after Marlowe Sommer donned blue latex gloves and opened the evidence bag in a dramatic hearing on Friday, it was revealed that three of the shell casings were stamped with Starline Brass, which was an identifying characteristic of the “Rust” bullets.
The judge in the Baldwin involuntary manslaughter case dismissed the criminal charge after discovering the extent of an alleged effort to conceal potential evidence.
Despite warnings from the judge that she did not have to testify, Morrissey took the witness stand to give sworn testimony about her handling of the Teske ammunition and the Baldwin case.
Shortly before, Morrissey’s co-counsel, Erlinda O. Johnson, resigned from the case. Johnson told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo that she stepped down because she had only learned about the Teske rounds when the public did — during the cross-examination of a Santa Fe County law enforcement officer by Baldwin attorney Alex Spiro late Thursday.
“We have an obligation as prosecutors ... our obligation is to make sure all the evidence gets turned over,” Johnson told Cuomo. “We don’t get to decide what the defense is going to be.”
Morrissey, via email, said she would provide a written response to the Gutierrez motion.
Last week, she testified that she did not believe the Teske rounds had evidentiary value because they had never left Arizona. The “Rust” shooting occurred outside Santa Fe, N.M. Teske was in Santa Fe for Gutierrez’s trial in March. He was scheduled to testify on behalf of Gutierrez, but Bowles did not call him to the stand.
The rounds were allegedly part of a batch that had been supplied to “Rust” weapons and ammunition provider Seth Kenney. Baldwin’s attorneys alleged that Kenney may have co-mingled live bullets with so-called dummies — an allegation that Kenney has long denied.
Bowles also pointed to an interview of Kenney, which wasn’t disclosed to the defense until after Gutierrez was convicted.
“Ms. Gutierrez-Reed respectfully requests this Court order a new trial or dismissal of the case for egregious prosecutorial misconduct,” Bowles wrote in Tuesday’s motion.
Bowles argued that, among the allegations of misconduct that came to light last week, crime scene technician Marissa Poppell “had been directed to place the Teske rounds in a separate case file with a separate number (not Rust) and create a report that was also filed in that separate case file so that these would not be disclosed to the defense,” he wrote in the Gutierrez court filing.
Gutierrez had been scheduled to testify in Baldwin’s criminal trial but Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case on what was scheduled to be the third day of testimony.
Inside the business of entertainment
The Wide Shot brings you news, analysis and insights on everything from streaming wars to production — and what it all means for the future.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
