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Early last year, Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was charged with involuntary manslaughter for the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins back in October 2021. Hannah’s trial began in late February of this year, she was convicted two weeks later, and in May, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer gave Hannah the maximum possible sentence of 18 months in prison, where she is now. Then last week happened. Alec Baldwin’s trial for the same charge began before the same judge last Tuesday, and by Friday the entire case was dismissed because the prosecution (inexplicably) failed to disclose evidence to the defense. Anyone who’s seen My Cousin Vinny knows, “it’s called disclosure you d–khead!” Now, as expected, Hannah’s lawyers have filed a motion to dismiss her conviction:
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the Rust armorer who was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the October 2021 on-set fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, is seeking to dismiss her conviction or have a new trial after Alec Baldwin’s criminal case was dismissed mid-trial.
In court documents filed in New Mexico on Tuesday, July 16, and obtained by PEOPLE, Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys Jason Bowles and Monica L. Barreras sent a motion to the court asking for the armorer to either receive a new trial or have her conviction dismissed in the wake of “an egregious discovery violation” made by New Mexico’s special prosecutors.
Baldwin’s case was dismissed in a surprise twist on Friday, July 12 after the actor’s attorneys argued the prosecution buried evidence related to the case without the defense’s knowledge. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, who also presided over Gutierrez-Reed’s criminal trial, dismissed Baldwin’s case with prejudice, meaning Baldwin, 66, cannot be charged with involuntary manslaughter again.
Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys argued in this new motion that prosecutors “withheld bombshell exculpatory evidence that it had a constitutional obligation to disclose and that would have resulted in a fundamentally different trial,” for the armorer, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death on March 6.
Gutierrez-Reed was in charge of prop weapons on the Western movie Rust, which Baldwin, 66, starred in and co-produced, when a gun Baldwin was holding discharged and killed Hutchins, 42, on Oct. 21, 2021, in New Mexico. On April 15, Gutierrez-Reed received the maximum sentence of 18 months of incarceration at a New Mexico women’s correctional facility. She was separately cleared on a separate charge of tampering with evidence during that trial.
Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys are asking the court to outright dismiss her conviction or grant her a new trial in light of misconduct discovered during Baldwin’s trial, per court documents obtained by PEOPLE. They also asked that the court alternatively release Gutierrez-Reed pending an appeal and that special prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey be removed from the case.
Despite Gutierrez-Reed’s new motion, Emily D. Baker, a legal expert and former Los Angeles district attorney, tells PEOPLE the movie’s armorer “is in a much different position” to have her case dismissed or receive a new trial.
“With the swiftness of that conviction and the evidence, including Hannah’s own statements to police that she loaded the weapon, I don’t know if any of this coming forward would change the jury result that she didn’t do her job as the armorer,” Baker says. “The position of Baldwin was much stronger. Hannah’s position to get released and to get this overturned is not as good as Baldwin’s. It’s a much weaker argument for her.”
So her defense lawyers are asking for Hannah’s conviction to be dismissed or at least retried, and they want the prosecutor off the case, oh and Hannah should be sprung from prison in the interim. Have I got all that right? Defense attorneys are gonna defend, I get that, and at this point the prosecution should also want a new lead attorney based on how badly Kari Morrissey bungled the other case. But Hannah’s attitude and behavior have been so off-putting that I hate the idea she could finagle her way out, here. Instead of taking real responsibility, she’s complained about how her own life has been affected. Other lives have been affected, too, like the lives of Halyna Hutchins, her family and friends.
Earlier this week I was more convinced that her conviction would be overturned, on the same Brady violation issue as Alec Baldwin. But between this reporting, and the thorough timelines y’all laid out in the comments, I’m more encouraged now that her conviction will stand. Back when the ruling came down in March, jurors were pretty clear that Hannah’s inconsistent safety checks on set were a big factor in their decision. If that’s so, then Judge Sommer can say that the withheld evidence from Alec’s trial would likely not have changed the outcome of Hannah’s case.