Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, jailed for 18 months, alleges prosecutorial misconduct and seeks to be released
A judge heard arguments on whether to dismiss a criminal conviction against a movie armorer in the shooting death of a cinematographer by the actor Alec Baldwin and said she would rule next week on whether to scuttle the case or order a retrial.
In a remote court hearing, an attorney for Hannah Gutierrez-Reed challenged her March conviction for involuntary manslaughter, alleging that prosecutors failed to share evidence including ammunition that might have been exculpatory in the shooting death that occurred on the set of Rust in 2021.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer is reconsidering Gutierrez-Reed’s felony conviction after throwing out an involuntary manslaughter case against Baldwin, mid-trial, on similar grounds.
“This pattern of [evidence] discovery abuse occurred in Ms Gutierrez-Reed’s case in the same manner that it did in Mr Baldwin’s case,” said Jason Bowles, lead defense attorney to Gutierrez-Reed.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer for Rust, was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal on a movie ranch outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding the director, Joel Souza.
