“Rust” Armorer Hannah Gutierrez’s Freedom at Stake! New Mexico Judge to Decide!

Following the dismissal of Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter charges in connection with the fatal shooting on the “Rust” set, a judge in New Mexico has hinted that she will deliberate on whether arms handler Hannah Gutierrez should either be released or granted a retrial.

In March, after a trial that ran for two weeks, Gutierrez was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the demise of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

It has been confirmed by Gutierrez that she loaded the firearm on that day. The prosecution alleges that she brought the live ammunition to the “Rust” film set near Santa Fe, N.M., in October 2021 — a claim that Gutierrez has persistently refuted.

The prosecution’s case has been in disarray ever since Baldwin’s charges were dropped in July due to allegations of potential evidence being withheld by Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies and a special prosecutor from his attorneys.

The revelation — which was disclosed on the third day of the actor’s high-profile trial in Santa Fe — shocked both the judge and the legal fraternity of New Mexico.

The First Judicial District Judge of New Mexico, Mary Marlowe Sommer, was irate with the deputies and the special prosecutor, Kari T. Morrissey, who allegedly failed to share potential evidence that could have been beneficial to Baldwin’s defense.

An ex-police officer from Arizona had given cartridges to deputies in March, suggesting they might correspond to the lethal bullet used in the “Rust” shooting that killed Hutchins.

However, deputies assigned the bag of evidence a separate case number from the one used for the “Rust” shooting evidence, making it inaccessible for Baldwin’s team as they combed through the sheriff’s files and boxes of evidence in preparation for the actor’s trial.

After the charges against Baldwin were dropped, Gutierrez’s lawyer from Albuquerque, Jason Bowles, presented a motion for Gutierrez’s release from the women’s prison in New Mexico, where she is presently serving an 18-month sentence for the felony conviction.

In his motion, Bowles claimed that Morrissey — who was the special prosecutor for Gutierrez’s trial — also failed to disclose evidence before the Gutierrez trial, including a recorded interview with weapons supplier Seth Kenney, who was a critical witness for the prosecution. Bowles requested a new trial or dismissal of Gutierrez’s case due to alleged “severe and ongoing discovery violations by the state.”

“It’s beyond debate that the state violated Ms. Gutierrez‘s rights to due process,” Bowles wrote, urging the judge to “order a new trial or dismissal of the case due to gross prosecutorial misconduct. The Court should also order Ms. Gutierrez’s release.”

This Tuesday, Marlowe Sommer scheduled a hearing for Sept. 27 to decide if Gutierrez should be released or granted a new trial.

Morrissey has refuted the accusations of misconduct and has objected to the request for a new trial.

She pointed out that Bowles was informed about the ammunition cartridges given to deputies in March, the disputed evidence in the Baldwin case.

The former police officer, Troy Teske, who delivered the bullets to New Mexico, is a good friend of Gutierrez’s father, Thell Reed, a well-known gun handler in Hollywood. Morrissey has argued that the bullets were not significant because they were in Arizona, not New Mexico, at the time of the “Rust” shooting.

Teske was present in Santa Fe in March in case he was called to testify for the defense. However, Bowles did not summon Teske as a witness.

In other news, a judge in Los Angeles allowed a negligence case against Baldwin, brought by a “Rust” crew member, to proceed following a court-imposed pause in proceedings.

On Friday, Judge Maurice A. Leiter lifted a stay of “Rust” gaffer Serge Svetnoy’s civil lawsuit, which alleges that Baldwin and other film producers were negligent in Hutchins’ shooting.

Svetnoy held Hutchins in his arms as she lay dying on the set of “Rust” after Baldwin accidentally shot the cinematographer.