The defense attorney in Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial on Thursday accused prosecutors of withholding evidence provided by a so-called “good Samaritan,” which he said supports the theory that some kind of sabotage is to blame for the live round that killed Halyna Hutchins on the set of “Rust” in October 2021.
The prosecution, however, revealed that this “good Samaritan” was in fact a longtime family friend of “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed — who was convicted in her own manslaughter trial in March and is now serving an 18 month prison sentence — and that the purported evidence did not actually support the theory at all.
You can watch the entire day of testimony in the trial here.
On Thursday, Baldwin’s lawyer Alex Spiro raised the theory, originally presented and shut down during Gutierrez-Reed’s trial, that someone wanted to sabotage the “Rust” set by putting live rounds into the film’s ammo supply.
While he cross-examined Santa Fe County crime scene technician Marissa Poppell, Spiro asserted that after Gutierrez-Reed was convicted, a “good Samaritan” turned ammunition over to police that matched the bullet that killed Hutchins, and told them it backed the sabotage theory. Spiro then accused prosecutors of hiding this from Baldwin’s defense team.
But prosecutor Kari Morrissey later revealed the identity of the mystery do-gooder: Former officer Troy Teske, who is a longtime friend of Gutierrez-Reed’s father. Morrissey used this connection to call into question Teske’s motivations for coming forward with this purported evidence in the first place.
Then under cross examination by Morrissey, Poppell asserted that the Teske’s evidence didn’t actually match the bullet that killed Hutchins.
“The information that the ‘good Samaritan’ Mr. Teske, the close friend of Hannah Gutierrez’s dad, when he, that ammunition that he brought to you after her conviction, you still have it?” Morrissey asked.
“Yes,” Poppell said.
“You can bring it in here and you can show it to the jury, right?” Morrissey asked. “And they can see for themselves that it does not match the live ammunition from the set of ‘Rust,’ correct?”
“Yes,” Poppell replied.
“And that is obvious when you look at it, is it not?” Morrissey continued, a question Poppell quickly answered in the affirmative.
During her February trial, as well as in TV interviews, Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyer implied that munitions supplier Seth Kenney might have put live bullets into the boxes of “dummy” rounds on the set of “Rust” to undermine the armorer. Kenney denied any involvement in the fatal shooting.
“This idea came up … what if someone sabotaged the set,” Baldwin defense attorney Alex Spiro said Thursday while cross-examining Marissa Poppell, a state’s witness who helped process much of the evidence from the ill-fated set. “This was dismissed early on … but you also need to investigate whether someone from outside the ‘Rust’ set was responsible … you continue to investigate that and you executed search warrants, correct?”
“Not me personally,” Poppell said, “but I remember that was something that needs to be investigated.”
Though Spiro did not directly accuse Kenney, his line of questioning referred back to the supplier several times. “Let me ask you something,” Spiro asked Poppell at one point. “At any point did you become suspicious of Seth Kenney?”
“No,” she answered flatly.
The trial resumes on Friday.
