A judge denied a new trial for “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed on Monday, ruling that withheld evidence would not have changed her guilty verdict for manslaughter.
Defense attorneys had claimed the prosecution failed to turn over a forensic report and an interview with weapons supplier Seth Kenney. But Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, who oversaw the case as well as Alec Baldwin’s, wrote that Gutierrez-Reed “has not established that there is a reasonable probability that … the evidence would have produced a different verdict.”
Gutierrez-Reed was sentenced in April to 18 months for involuntary manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Prosecutors argued at the February trial in Santa Fe that she failed to detect a live bullet before loading it into Baldwin’s replica Colt .45.
Baldwin was also charged with involuntary manslaughter, but when his defense team brought to light that prosecutors failed to turn over bullets that were turned over as evidence, Marlowe Sommer immediately dismissed the case, concluding the July trial.
Gutierrez-Reed’s defense made a similar argument, saying prosecutor Kari Morrissey withheld an expert’s report that showed unexplained toolmarks on Baldwin’s gun. The judge wrote that the expert noted the toolmarks would not affect the weapon’s operation.
The armorer is now pursuing an appeal on separate grounds, while Morrissey is seeking to revive manslaughter charges against Baldwin, arguing that the bullet cache was similarly irrelevant to the actor/producer’s case.
