Case against Alec Baldwin dropped - Weapons mistress will again from the prison
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed (27) requests from the judges that her sentence be reversed as well, after the surprising halt of the trial against Hollywood star Alec Baldwin (66) on Friday. In April, the weapons manager responsible for the film "Rust" was sentenced to 18 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter.
Prosecutorial misconduct led to the halt of the Baldwin trial
In October 2021, the 42-year-old Ukrainian cinematographer Halyna Hutchins (1979-2021) was fatally injured by a bullet from a gun held by Baldwin during the filming of a western. It is still unclear why the gun was loaded with live ammunition.
Alec Baldwin will not be charged criminally for the shooting, as the court in Santa Fe, New Mexico, permanently ended the trial due to a procedural error by the Prosecution. Baldwin's case collapsed when it was discovered that a retired police officer had given ammunition to investigators on March 6. Information about these bullets, which may have been the fatal one, were never conveyed to Baldwin's defense team.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed also affected by prosecutorial misconduct
According to industry magazine "Variety", the "Rust" production designer now claims she was exposed to the same prosecutorial misconduct that caused the trial against Baldwin to collapse last week. In a July 16 filing, her attorney Jason Bowles stated that he had received crucial evidence since her sentencing that should have been disclosed before the trial.
Bowles also requested that Gutierrez-Reed be released from prison and that Special Prosecutor Kari Morrissey be removed from the case due to misconduct. District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies has expressed her continued support for Morrissey.
On the previous Friday, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer found that the state's withholding of evidence justified the prejudicial termination of Baldwin's manslaughter trial. "How can it be any different for Ms. Gutierrez-Reed's case with this proven litany of misuse of evidence?", argued Bowles in his filing. "The intentional withholding of critical evidence by the state threatened the integrity of the entire court proceeding."
The process against Alec Baldwin's trial was halted due to prosecutorial misconduct, with a retired police officer inadvertently providing live ammunition to investigators that was not disclosed to Baldwin's defense team. Consequently, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed's attorney, Jason Bowles, is arguing for Gutierrez-Reed's release from prison and the removal of Special Prosecutor Kari Morrissey due to similar misconduct in her case. Bowles contends that the intentional withholding of critical evidence by the state threatened the integrity of Gutierrez-Reed's court proceeding, drawing parallels to Baldwin's trial collapse.
