The ‘Rust’ Armorer Will Not Get a New Trial
A judge in New Mexico has upheld the conviction of Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer on “Rust” who in April was sentenced to 18 months in prison for the involuntary manslaughter of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer ruled on Monday, September 30 that Gutierrez-Reed will serve out the remainder of her 18-month sentence, and her attorney’s bid for a new trial was denied after it was found there was evidence suppressed in the involuntary manslaughter case against Alec Baldwin.
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“Defendant has not established that there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been available to Defendant, the evidence would have produced a different verdict,” said Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer wrote in a ruling.
Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of involuntary manslaughter on March 6 and has been in custody ever since. She was acquitted on a charge of evidence tampering. She was sentenced to the maximum penalty of 18 months under New Mexico law.
In July, Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney, Jason Bowles, made a motion for a new trial in light of the Baldwin outcome, citing “egregious prosecutorial misconduct” and allegations of “severe and ongoing discovery violations by the state.”
Bowles did not immediately respond to IndieWire’s request for comment on Monday’s decision.
At her trial in March, a jury found Gutierrez-Reed was responsible for the weapons on the film and that she loaded a live round into the gun that was handed to Baldwin and discharged, killing Hutchins and injuring the film’s director Joel Souza. The case centered around how a live round made its way to set, and the jury was presented with evidence that Gutierrez-Reed brought a bag of loose rounds with her to set from a prior film. The jury also heard testimony that she was unprofessional on set and was allegedly hungover on the job.
Her conviction was called into question after Baldwin’s trial on the same charge was thrown out. He, too, faced 18 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter, but it was revealed that new evidence was uncovered and not shared with the defense, with prosecutor Kari Morrissey admitting on the stand that she felt the evidence of new ballistics was immaterial to the case.
The ruling comes almost three years after Hutchins was shot on the “Rust” set back on October 21, 2021.
More to come…
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