A New Mexico judge on Monday upheld a manslaughter conviction against a movie gunsmith in the shooting death of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western film “Rust.”
Gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez-Reed asked a court to throw out her manslaughter conviction or hold a new trial in the shooting death, alleging misconduct and suppression of evidence by authorities.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer halted and ended Baldwin’s trial in July due to police and prosecutor misconduct and her withholding of evidence from the defense in cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’ 2021 filming on set in the outskirts of Santa Fe.
Gutierrez-Reed was convicted by a jury in March in a trial overseen by Marlowe Sommer, who later sentenced her to the maximum sentence of 18 months. Gutierrez-Reed already has an appeal of his involuntary manslaughter conviction pending in higher court.
Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed for unintentionally bringing live ammunition to the set of “Rust” and failing to follow basic gun safety protocols.
Get daily national news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic and current affairs headlines delivered to your inbox once a day.
Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyers argued that her case should be reconsidered because prosecutors did not share evidence that could have been exculpatory.
She was acquitted at trial of accusations that she tampered with evidence in the “Rust” investigation. Gutierrez-Reed also pleaded not guilty to a separate felony charge for allegedly carrying a gun into a bar in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where firearms are prohibited. A proposed plea deal is pending judicial review.
Baldwin, lead actor and co-producer of “Rust,” was pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal for a film set outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. .
© 2024 The Canadian Press
