The district attorney responsible for the “Rust” case rejected the idea floated by armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyers that “sabotage” could have led to the fatal shot that killed Halyna Hutchins.
Speaking in an interview with “Good Morning America” on Wednesday, Santa Fe County District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies addressed the looming question of how live ammunition could have wound up on set for the film.
“We don’t have an answer to that yet. I know some defense attorneys have come up with conspiracy theories and used the word sabotage,” Carmack-Altwies told ABC on Wednesday. “We do not have any proof.”
When pressed as to whether she believes “sabotage” is a possibility, Carmack-Altwies responded, “No,” but said that if there were any evidence for that claim, it would potentially bring charges much higher than for what they are currently considering.
“Certainly a higher level of murder charge than we would potentially be looking at with the facts that we have now,” she said. “The defense attorneys, we don’t have the same information they do, but until we have it in our hands, it doesn’t play into the decision making process.”
Last week, lawyers for Gutierrez-Reed Jason Bowles and Robert Gorence said on “Today” that they believed live rounds might have appeared in a box intended for “dummy” rounds and was deliberately put into the box by someone seeking to sabotage the production, and in a subsequent statement she denied knowing how the live rounds got onto set. Those claims however have not been verified. And in an additional statement late Wednesday, Bowles said that Gutierrez-Reed met with detectives for another interview and further suggested that Gutierrez-Reed was being “framed” and that the scene on set may have been “tampered with” ahead of police arriving.
Carmack-Altwies also said that she’s prepared to wait months before a decision can be made on pressing charges or for when an investigation will be complete. A rep for the Santa Fe sheriff’s department told TheWrap on Thursday the investigation is ongoing and declined to comment further.
Carmack-Altwies added that she knows more than the one live round was found on set and knows how many live bullets were present but could not share that information. How they got there will be among the most important factors that goes into her decision to press charges.
“I think the most concerning things is there were so many levels of failure on that set,” she said. “It’s probably more important to focus on what led up to the shooting, because the moment of the shooting, we know at least that [Alec] Baldwin had no idea that the gun was loaded. So it’s more how did that gun get loaded, what were the levels of failure that happened, and were those levels of failure criminal?”
See the full interview with “Rust” DA Mary Carmack-Altwies from Wednesday via “Good Morning America.”
