“Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed wants her manslaughter conviction thrown out after Alec Baldwin was cleared for the same crime mid-trial last week on the grounds prosecutors withheld evidence.
Baldwin’s trial was abruptly tossed out Friday just three days into his involuntary manslaughter case for his involvement in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western in October 2021.
Santa Fe, N.M. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the charges against the 66-year-old “30 Rock” star and said a new case cannot be brought against him after Baldwin’s lawyers presented evidence that live ammunition related to Hutchins’ death was “concealed” from them by prosecutors.
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Now, Gutierrez-Reed, 27, has filed an expedited motion asking Marlowe Sommer for a new trial or for her conviction to be overturned on the same grounds the judge dismissed Baldwin’s case — which amounted to “egregious posecutorial misconduct,” her lawyer Jason Bowles wrote in court papers from Tuesday.
The armorer — who already filed a notice appealing her conviction and 18-month sentence for Hutchins death — is also seeking to immediately be released from prison.
“This court stated on July 12 that the integrity of the judicial system demanded that the court dismiss Mr. Baldwin’s case,” Bowles said. “How can it be any different with Mr. Gutierrez-Reed’s case … ?”
The jury in Baldwin’s trial was sent home early Friday so that the judge could listen to testimony from several witnesses — including prosecutor Kari Morrissey herself — as Baldwin’s side sought to prove that prosecutors “buried” evidence that should have been shared with both defendants prior to trial.
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Instead, Baldwin’s lawyer Alex Spiro claimed a mysterious “good Samaritan” brought the bullets — they claimed were from ammunition that killed Hutchins — to the sheriff’s department after Gutierrez-Reed was already sentenced in the case.
But prosecutors argued the good Samaritan was a pal of Gutierrez-Reed’s father and the bullets didn’t match those found on set.
Bowles claims in the papers that Morrissey lied on the witness stand Friday and “made misrepresentations” to the jury as well about that ammunition and why it came into the case at such a late stage.
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“The intentional withholding of crucial evidence …by the state has compromised the integrity of the entire judicial process,” Bowles wrote. “Justice demands that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s conviction be overtuned immediately, ensuring the legal system does not perpetuate this core affront to our system, that has been watched all over the world.”
At both trials, prosecutors claimed that both Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed flouted gun safety rules and failed to do the proper check for live rounds of the Colt .45 revolved that Baldwin shot killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Both defendants sought to pass off the blame to the other during their trials with Gutierrez-Reed, a rookie armorer, claiming she was saddled with two positions on set leaving her with insufficient time to properly oversee safety of the weapons on set.
Meanwhile, Baldwin’s side alleged that it was inconceivable that live rounds would be present during shooting and he was just an actor, acting at the time of the tragic accident.