A prosecutor is opposing a former movie armourer’s request to be released from prison over a 2021 shooting involving Alec Baldwin on the Rust film set.
Prosecutor Kari Morrissey wrote that former armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s motion for release “is premature given that the court has yet to receive completed briefing on the defendant’s motion for new trial, hear arguments on the defendant’s motion and rule on the motion in defendant’s favour”.
Lawyers for Gutierrez-Reed have argued her case should be reconsidered because prosecutors failed to share evidence that might have been exculpatory.
Gutierrez-Reed wants a judge to dismiss her involuntary manslaughter conviction or convene a new trial in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins by actor Alec Baldwin.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer for Rust, was pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal on a movie set outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Gutierrez-Reed, who is serving 18 months, already has an appeal pending in a higher court on the involuntary manslaughter conviction.
Baldwin’s trial ended on July 12 when Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case based on misconduct of police and prosecutors over the withholding of evidence from the defence.
Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of Rust, where it was expressly prohibited, and for failing to follow basic gun safety protocols.
She was acquitted at trial of allegations she tampered with evidence in the Rust investigation.
Source Agencies
