Incarcerated ‘Rust’ Armorer Requests Charges Dismissed Or New Trial After Alec Baldwin Manslaughter Case Tossed Out

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Almost immediately after Alec Baldwin’s  involuntary manslaughter trial for the 2021 killing of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was tossed out, the lawyer for the troubled film’s incarcerated armorer vowed to make a move to free Hannah Gutierrez-Reed 

Today he has.

Based on the prosecution and local police’s failure to fully disclose evidence in Baldwin’s trial, Jason Bowles has Tuesday filed an expedited motion in the New Mexico courts to see Gutierrez-Reed’s case dismissed or for her to receive a new trial ASAP. “Justice demands that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s conviction be overturned immediately, ensuring that the legal system does not perpetuate this core affront to our system that has been watched all over the world,” the filing says, citing “egregious prosecutorial misconduct.”

“The State withheld bombshell exculpatory evidence that it had a constitutional obligation to disclose and that would have resulted in a fundamentally different trial and likely a different outcome.”

“In the alternative to an outright dismissal or at least a new trial, the Court should grant Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s already filed motion for immediate release pending appeal,” Bowles’ 23-page motion says, covering all the bases.

Read the Hannah Gutierrez-Reed expedited motion to dismiss or for a new Rust trial here

As well, stating that there was even more evidence “suppression” than previously known now unearthed, the document demands that Kari Morrissey “be removed as Special Prosecutor for the misconduct that has been found, and the violations committed in Ms. Gutierrez Reed’s case.”

Hutchins was fatally shot, and Rust director Joel Souza was injured on October 21, 2021 after the Colt .45 Baldwin was pointing at the director of photography fired off a live round during a rehearsal at the Bonanza Creek Ranch near the New Mexico town.

Gutierrez-Reed was sentenced on April 15 to 18 months in a New Mexico state prison after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter on March 6 for the live round that ended up on the seemingly chaotic Rust set. The 27-year-old daughter of legendary movie gun coach Thell Reed had been in the process of appealing her sentence and trying to get early release. It has never been conclusively established how live rounds got on the Rust set and in several guns such as Baldwin’s.

The Gutierrez-Reed jury of seven women and five men returned their verdict in the criminal case after just a couple hours of deliberation. The trial of the crew member was two weeks long, with the presence of a number of eccentrics, to put it politely, that one has come to expect from this matter. Taken into custody as soon as the verdict was delivered, and having been denied bail and release during appeal, it looked like Gutierrez-Reed would be serving most of her full sentence — until the sudden and dramatic turn in Baldwin’s white knuckling case on July 12.

“The state is highly culpable for its failure to provide discovery to the defendant,” Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer told the court just minutes after it had heard from special prosector Kari Morrissey that her colleague Erlinda Johnson had resigned mid-day. “Dismissal with prejudice is warranted,” she added as Baldwin broke down in tears of what must have been relief and joy, and his attorneys hugged each other and the 30 Rock actor in victory.

At the time, it was clear the ruling by Judge Sommer last week, at the end of a often testy evidentiary hearing over a defense motion to dismiss over bullets dropped off to Santa Fe police in recent weeks by ex-Arizona cop Troy Teske, could also mean the release of Gutierrez-Reed from New Mexico state prison.

Called as a witness in the Baldwin case against her wishes, Gutierrez-Reed was actually in the county jail nearby the courtroom when Judge Sommer’s ruling came down. Though it was likely she would plead her 5th Amendment rights if questioned by prosecutors, the former armorer had been scheduled to take the stand on July 12 — which clearly didn’t happen.

It later turned out that recently brought on board special prosecutor Johnson didn’t merely leave the Baldwin case at a critical juncture because she was worried about a public hearing on the actor’s defense team motion, as Morrissey told the court when she put herself under oath. As today’s filing states: “In a media interview the same day, Ms. Johnson explained that she resigned because of her ethical duties as a prosecutor, and that she had argued that the case should be dismissed by the Statebecause of the late disclosure and that she was overruled, obviously by Ms. Morrissey.”

Still, even with all the sheer incompetence and chaos in the Rust case since that terrible day almost three years ago, First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies insists she is standing by the Special Prosecutor appointed to take over a year and a half ago after the D.A.’s office bungled the matter.  “There is no better advocate than Kari Morrissey to see the Hannah Gutierrez Reed cases through, and her appointment and oath are still in place,” Carmack-Altwies’ office said on June 15.

With today’s motion by Gutierrez Reed’s team, that insistence for Morrissey to stay by the DA may go the way of Andrea Reeb. Offered deep support by old friend Carmack-Altwies, the first Rust special prosecutor exited before she was asked to leave. Reeb was hit with a wave of protestations in mid-2023 from Baldwin’s  Quinn Emanuel lawyers of “unconstitutionally” and conflict of interest for being a GOP member of the state legislature who wanted to use the Baldwin case to help get elected.