SANTA FE.- A special prosecutor is opposing a former film weapons supervisor’s request to be released from prison while she seeks a new trial and an appeal of her manslaughter conviction for a 2021 shooting on the set of the movie Rust.
Kari Morrissey wrote in a response filed Friday that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s motion for release “is premature given that the court has not yet received a full brief on the defendant’s motion for a new trial, nor has it heard arguments on the defendant’s motion or ruled on the motion in favor of the defendant.”
Los lawyers Gutierrez-Reed argues that her case should be reconsidered because prosecutors failed to share evidence that could have been exculpatory.
Gutierrez-Reed wants a judge to throw out her conviction or call for a new trial in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was shot by a gun held by actor Alec Baldwin.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer of Rust, was pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal on a film set outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the gun went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
The appeal
Gutierrez-Reed already has an appeal pending in a higher court over her manslaughter conviction.
She was found guilty by a jury in March at a trial overseen by Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, who later gave her the maximum sentence of 18 months.
Baldwin’s trial ended on July 12 when Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case based on police and prosecutorial misconduct for withholding evidence from the defense.
Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed for unintentionally bringing live ammunition onto the set of Rust, where it was expressly prohibited, and for not following basic gun safety protocols.
She was acquitted at trial of charges that she had tampered with evidence in the investigation of Rust.
Source: AP