A month after dismissing manslaughter charges against Alec Baldwin in the deadly “Rust” shooting, a New Mexico judge said she will consider whether gun handler Hannah Gutierrez should also be released or receive a new trial.
After a two-week trial, Gutierrez was convicted in March of involuntary manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Gutierrez has acknowledged loading the gun that day. Prosecutors say she brought the live rounds to the set of “Rust” near Santa Fe, New Mexico, in October 2021, an allegation Gutierrez has consistently denied.
The prosecution has been in turmoil since Baldwin's case collapsed in July amid revelations that Santa Fe County sheriff's deputies and a special prosecutor had withheld potential evidence from the actor-producer's lawyers.
The admission, which came on the third day of the actor's high-profile trial in Santa Fe, stunned the judge and the New Mexico legal community.
New Mexico First Judicial District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer was furious with agents and special prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey for allegedly withholding potential evidence that could have been helpful to Baldwin's case.
A retired Arizona police officer had provided shell casings to officers in March, saying they could match the fatal bullet in the “Rust” shooting that killed Hutchins.
But deputies assigned the evidence bag a different case number than the one used for evidence in the “Rust” shooting, making it impossible for Baldwin's team to find the bullets as they sifted through sheriff's files and evidence boxes in preparation for the actor's trial.
After the case against Baldwin was dismissed, Gutierrez's Albuquerque attorney, Jason Bowles, filed a motion to have Gutierrez released from the New Mexico Women's Prison, where she is currently serving an 18-month sentence for a felony charge.
In a motion, Bowles argued that Morrissey, who was the special prosecutor in Gutierrez’s case, also withheld evidence before Gutierrez’s trial, including a recorded interview with gun supplier Seth Kenney, who was a key prosecution witness. Bowles asked for a new trial or dismissal of Gutierrez’s case due to alleged “serious and continuing violations of the state’s obligation of discovery.”
“There can be no legitimate debate over whether the state violated Ms. Gutierrez’s due process rights,” Bowles wrote, asking the judge to “order a new trial or dismissal of the case for the prosecutor’s egregious misconduct. The court should also order Ms. Gutierrez’s release.”
On Tuesday, Marlowe Sommer scheduled a hearing for Sept. 27 to decide whether Gutierrez should be released or given a new trial.
Morrissey has denied the allegations of misconduct and opposed the motion for a new trial.
He said Bowles was aware of the ammunition clips provided to officers in March, the evidence at issue in the Baldwin case.
Former police officer Troy Teske, who brought the bullets to New Mexico, is a close friend of Gutierrez’s father, Hollywood gunman Thell Reed. Morrissey has said the bullets were not relevant because they were in Arizona, not New Mexico, at the time of the “Rust” shooting.
Teske was in Santa Fe in March in case he was called as a defense witness, but Bowles did not call him to testify.
In other developments, a Los Angeles judge allowed a “Rust” crew member’s negligence case against Baldwin to resume after a court-ordered pause in proceedings.
Judge Maurice A. Leiter on Friday lifted a stay on a civil lawsuit by “Rust” boss Serge Svetnoy alleging that Baldwin and other producers of the film were negligent in the shooting of Hutchins.
Svetnoy held Hutchins in his arms as she lay dying on the set of “Rust” after Baldwin accidentally shot the director of photography.
