Rust Armorer Looks to Take Advantage of Baldwin's Win

Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed says she deserves to be freed from prison, or else granted a new trial, due to "egregious prosecutorial misconduct" that resulted in actor Alec Baldwin's own involuntary manslaughter case being dismissed. Her lawyer filed a motion for a new trial or dismissal of her case on Tuesday, citing "severe and ongoing discovery violations by the State," NBC News reports. On Friday, the judge overseeing Baldwin's criminal trial decided dismissal with prejudice was "the only warranted remedy" after special prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey suppressed evidence related to live ammunition on the set where cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot in 2021.

A crime scene technician testified that Troy Teske, a friend of Gutierrez-Reed's father, gave investigators a box of live ammunition he obtained from prop supplier Seth Kenney and believed was related to Gutierrez-Reed's March conviction for involuntary manslaughter, for which she was sentenced to 18 months in a New Mexico state prison. Teske reportedly hoped the evidence would help Gutierrez-Reed's appeal. But the rounds weren't added to the case file or tested to see if they matched the lethal round, CNN reports. Baldwin's lawyers alleged prosecutors concealed "an external source of the live ammunition" as it was "favorable to Baldwin."

Gutierrez-Reed's attorneys now claim Morrissey "attempted to hide" the same "crucial evidence," and much more, in their client's case. The armorer's defense team claims they knew of Teske's rounds in January and wrote to Morrissey, stressing it was important to compare them to the live rounds found on set, per CNN. Morrissey allegedly replied that the rounds were visually different and irrelevant. During Baldwin's trial, however, she claimed Gutierrez-Reed's attorneys weren't interested in Teske's rounds because they incriminated Gutierrez-Reed, according to the filing. It alleges prosecutors also suppressed an interview with Kenney, whose statements would've been used in their client's defense. (More Rust stories.)