Following last week’s dismissal of manslaughter charges against actor Alec Baldwin in the shooting death of the cinematographer on the set of the movie Rust, the movie’s armorer, who is currently in prison, is asking for a new trial.

On Tuesday, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed filed an expedited motion for a new trial or dismissal of the charges in the killing of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. In March, Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death and sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Based on the evidence in her trial, many observers expected the same result in the trial for Baldwin. But on July 12, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the charges against him, citing the failure of the prosecution to disclose some ammunition as evidence, which it was required to do.

At the time, Judge Sommer said: “The state’s willful withholding of this information was intentional and deliberate. If this conduct does not rise to the level of bad faith, it certainly comes so near to bad faith as to show signs of scorching prejudice.”

The papers filed by Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney cited that nondisclosure of evidence as a reason for their attempt to get the charges dismissed.

“Following the Baldwin trial and the dismissal with prejudice, Ms. Gutierrez-Reed intends to file an expedited motion for new trial or for dismissal for discovery violations and under the court’s inherent power,” the document said.

In the filing, Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys claimed that “Baldwin’s trial exposes extreme misconduct,” and also stated that “Special Prosecutor Kari Morrissey lies to this court under oath.”

“The intentional withholding of crucial evidence … has compromised the integrity of the entire judicial process,” the motion also stated. “Justice demands that Hannah Gutierrez Reed’s conviction be overturned immediately.”

During the earlier trial, prosecutors placed the blame for the shooting squarely on Gutierrez-Reed.

“Hannah Gutierrez knew that Baldwin was loose. She knew it,” prosecutors told the jury. “She didn’t do anything about it, even though it was her job. It was her job. It is her job to say to an A-list actor, if in fact, that’s what you want to call him, ‘Hey, you can’t behave that way with those firearms.’ That is her job. That is what they pay her for. That is the job that she applied for. That is the job that she accepted.”

Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys, however, argued that she should not be held responsible for Hutchins’ death for a number of reasons.

“Whoever put the live round on set and then Mr. Baldwin, in the end, going off script and doing what he did,” the attorneys said during the trial. “Those are outside events outside of Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s control that she didn’t know was going to happen.”

Despite that defense’s argument, it took jurors only three hours to find her guilty of the involuntary manslaughter charges. Judge Sommer later gave her the maximum sentence of 18 months.

Along with seeking a new trial or dismissal of the charges, Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys are also asking that she be freed from jail while further deliberations in the case proceed.

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25 COMMENTS

  1. She’ll even get her gun rights back.

    Well, at least she got a few weeks in the ‘Big House’…

    • I dunno & don’t care. Baldwin was ultimately responsible for hiring a drug addled daughter of an acquaintance as executive producer🙄

    • Ranger Rick,

      Gutierrez-Reed ’s attorneys are is not of the same skill super Elite set as Baldwin ’s.

      There, fixed that for you.

    • “Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys are not of the same skill set as Baldwin’s.”

      Baldwin’s cost a *lot* more…

  3. it was her job, period. who else’s responsibility to make sure there was no live ammo, to handle the firearms and to train people? Hers.

    • bob…you are full of ignorant sht. And just like the incompetent azzhat alec baldwin you are an accident waiting to happen.

    • She was the armorer but was also used as a “general hand”, leaving the guns unattended, because of Baldwin’s stinginess.

      • If she gets the new trial she wants, it doesn’t change the fact *she* loaded the gun.

        That’s gonna be tough to explain away…

      • Baldwin’s conduct as producer was taken off the table before his trial, well before it was declared a mistrial for withholding evidence. (Way to screw that up, prosecutors…) Unfortunate, since his responsibility for the killing lies as much or more in his role overseeing the production as it does with his unsafe gun handling. The mistrial means he’ll probably face civil liability, but no further criminal charges. A shame.

        • Baldwin was one of 11 producers on the project, his responsibilities extended only to actor selection and dialogue, not set operation which was the responsibility of other producers.

  4. If “The Rules” were being followed baldwin wouldn’t have been playing with the gun. Nobody should have been unless the armorer was physically present at the time.
    Was she negligent for not enforcing that rule? Maybe but it might have been impossible with the situation she was working in. She probably should have walked away.
    baldwin’s arrogant ass knows he was responsible on many levels but he doesn’t care.

  5. I do not care if you see Jerry Miculek clear a weapon and hand it to you YOU too clear the weapon. Failure to do so indicates you have a tendency to be a dumbazz like alec baldwin.

    • Nope. Sorry Debbie, but YOU are the one who doesn’t understand how this works in the film industry. In fact, an actor is not allowed to check a gun handed to him by the Armorer, even if he knows how. If he does so, the Armorer has to take the gun back, check it himself, and then give it back to the Actor and start over. The Armorer wasn’t even on the set when Baldwin shot Hutchins. The standard gun handling protocols were violated left and right on the “Rust” set. If Hannah Gutierrez-Reed couldn’t control weapons safety on the set, she should have resigned in protest. Yes, it was her first big job and doing that would probably have gotten her blackballed in Hollywood, but that was the Hobson’s Choice she faced. She chose the wimpy, dishonorable way.

  6. I don’t think Baldwin would tolerate any of “his” employees shutting “his” set down and, given his lifelong history of assaults and throwing temper tantrums and acting like a big spoiled crybaby, if she tried to enforce anything, he probably would have fired her on the spot.

    In light of the fact that the shooter got off, and there’s no telling what someone else did with the gun after she cleared it and gave up possession of it, I think at the very least she deserves a new trial and better lawyers on her side.

  9. Again…….

    Considering that the short tempered rodent’s charges were dismissed, I think she deserves a new trial with better lawyers.

    And regarding her job on set, she was Baldwin’s employee. Given his history of aggressive me me me behavior, I don’t think he’d tolerate his employees telling him what to do, I’d suspect that he’d get rid of her immediately for shutting down his set for a safety violation.

  11. Hmmmm… I watched the whole thing. It seems to me like CST Poppel should go to jail for perjury, Morrissey should be fired and disbarred, Hannah’s lawyer who allegedly sent the intentionally wrong picture to Morrissey should be disbarred and maybe jailed if Morrissey was telling the truth about that. Morrissey might be jail-worthy as well. Hannah though… well, she still didn’t do her job, and her lawyer knew about the Teske ammo. But there were other, unseen by the public but referred to by Alec’s lawyers, prosecutorial misconduct. That may rise to the level of tainting the Hannah trial enough to get her some relief. IANAL, just my opinion. But I watched all of both trials. Day 3 of Alec’s trial is a hoot. Watch it.

    BTW under NM law, Alec is guilty. NM specifically excludes abrogating responsibility for firearm safety. Other states don’t, but in NM he’s responsible and it’s negligent homicide, based on the 1954 NM supreme court decision.

    • “under NM law, Alec is guilty. NM specifically excludes abrogating responsibility for firearm safety“

      That’s very interesting, I certainly would like to know more about the actual text of the law/decisions regarding his guilt.

  12. AB isnt innocent and wasn’t found not guilty. Neither is she nor a bunch of other people on that set.

    And now it’s back to business as usual. RIP Mrs. Hayna.

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