Breaking! ‘Rust’ Armorer Hannah Gutierrez Seeks Case Dismissal Amidst Baldwin Scandal!

Just a few days after the case against Alec Baldwin in New Mexico fell apart due to claims of evidence hiding in the “Rust” shooting incident, Hannah Gutierrez, the film’s armorer, also requested to have her case dismissed.

Jason Bowles, Gutierrez’s attorney, submitted a 23-page motion on Tuesday night, requesting for either a reversal of Gutierrez’s involuntary manslaughter verdict or a retrial due to alleged “serious and continuous discovery violations by the state.” Bowles claimed that the trial against Gutierrez was unjust as the state also allegedly withheld evidence in her trial.

At the moment, Gutierrez is serving an 18-month sentence for her involvement in the accidental shooting death of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, which took place on the set of the budget western movie on Oct. 21, 2021.

This development occurs as the legal community in New Mexico is still trying to recover from revelations made during a dramatic court hearing on Friday. It was during this hearing that Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer of the New Mexico First Judicial Circuit Court dismissed the serious criminal charge against Baldwin, abruptly concluding the actor’s high-profile trial.

The judge was taken aback when Baldwin’s legal team claimed misconduct, including alleged collaboration between the prosecutor and Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies to hide potential evidence — a bag of ammunition — from defense attorneys.

The bag of cartridges, which had been given to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office in March by retired law enforcement officer Troy Teske after Gutierrez’s trial had concluded, is the key issue here. Teske, a friend of Gutierrez’s stepfather Thell Reed, had initially offered the evidence to the prosecutors last autumn, but special prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey declined.

Morrissey claimed that after examining a photo of the cartridges, she concluded they did not resemble the live “Rust” ammunition. The sheriff’s crime scene technician also testified last week that the bullets were not similar to those found on “Rust.”

However, during Friday’s dramatic hearing, Judge Marlowe Sommer wore blue latex gloves and opened the evidence bag, revealing that three of the shell casings had Starline Brass stamps, a characteristic of the “Rust” bullets.

Despite the judge’s caution that she was not obliged to testify, Morrissey took the stand to provide sworn testimony regarding her handling of the Teske ammunition and the Baldwin case.

Prior to this, Morrissey’s co-counsel, Erlinda O. Johnson, withdrew from the case. Johnson informed NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo that she resigned because she only found out about the Teske rounds when the public did — during the cross-examination of a Santa Fe County law enforcement officer by Baldwin’s lawyer Alex Spiro last Thursday.

“We have a duty as prosecutors … our duty is to ensure all the evidence is disclosed,” Johnson conveyed to Cuomo. “We don’t get to choose the defense’s strategy.”

Through an email, Morrissey said she would provide a written response to the Gutierrez motion.

She had testified just a week ago that she didn’t think the Teske rounds held any evidentiary value because they never left Arizona. The “Rust” shooting happened outside Santa Fe, N.M. Teske was in Santa Fe during Gutierrez’s trial in March. He was supposed to testify for Gutierrez, but Bowles didn’t summon him to the stand.

It’s suggested that the rounds were part of a batch provided to “Rust” weapons and ammunition supplier Seth Kenney. Baldwin’s lawyers alleged that Kenney might have mixed live bullets with so-called dummies, a claim which Kenney has consistently denied.

Bowles also highlighted an interview with 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 due to serious prosecutorial misconduct,” Bowles stated in Tuesday’s motion.

Bowles argued that among the allegations of misconduct brought to light last week was that crime scene technician Marissa Poppell “had been instructed to place the Teske rounds in a separate case file with a different 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,” as he noted in the Gutierrez court filing.

Gutierrez was supposed to testify in Baldwin’s criminal trial, but Judge Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case on what was supposed to be the third day of testimony.