A New Mexico judge on Monday upheld a manslaughter conviction against a filmmaker in the shooting death of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin during the filming of the Western film “Rust.”
Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed has asked the court to overturn her manslaughter conviction or hold a new trial in the shooting death case, citing misconduct and suppression of evidence by law enforcement.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer stayed and ended Baldwin’s trial in July based on misconduct by police and prosecutors and withholding evidence from the defense in the 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halina Hutchins outside Santa Fe.
A jury convicted Gutierrez-Reed in March in a trial overseen by Marlo Sommer, who later sentenced her to the maximum sentence of 18 months. Gutierrez Reed already has an appeal of her manslaughter conviction in a higher court.
Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed for unintentionally bringing live ammunition onto the set of “Rust” and for failing to follow basic gun safety protocols.
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Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyers argued that her case should be retried because prosecutors failed to share potentially exculpatory evidence.
She was acquitted during the trial of allegations of tampering with evidence in the “Rust” investigation. Gutierrez-Reed also pleaded not guilty to a separate felony charge of carrying a gun into a bar in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where firearms are prohibited. The proposed plea agreement awaits court review.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer of “Rust,” was pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal for a film filmed outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the gun went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
