‘Rust’ Armorer Charged With Evidence Tampering, Defense Calls Move ‘Retaliatory and Vindictive’
Prosecutors on Thursday accused “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed of tampering with evidence by handing off drugs to another person on the day of the fatal shooting on set.
Gutierrez Reed’s lawyer, Jason Bowles, said the new charge came without prior notice or evidence to support it.
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“Something is rotten in Denmark,” Bowles said in an email. “This stinks to high heaven and is retaliatory and vindictive.”
Gutierrez Reed is already facing a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the October 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
The special prosecutors assigned to the case filed an amended complaint adding the additional charge.
Also Thursday, Bowles revealed in a court filing that he had been accidentally copied on an email from the D.A.’s lead investigator, in which the investigator disparaged the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office and its handling of the “Rust” case.
“The conduct of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office during and after their initial investigation is reprehensible and unprofessional to a degree I still have no words for,” wrote the investigator, Robert Shilling. “Not I or 200 more proficient investigators than I can/could clean up the mess delivered to your office in October 2022 (1 year since the initial incident…inexcusable).”
The “Rust” prosecution has been plagued by a series of setbacks. The D.A.’s office initially charged Alec Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter for accidentally firing the gun, only to drop the charge after evidence surfaced that the gun may not have been functioning properly. The special prosecutors on the case have sent the gun for additional testing, and have said they will refile the case if it turns out the gun was working normally.
Prosecutors had earlier dropped a five-year sentencing enhancement against both defendants after learning that the law was not on the books at the time of the shooting. D.A. Mary Carmack-Altwies had also complained that her office lacks the manpower to handle a high-profile case. She ultimately recused herself after a judge ruled that she could not co-prosecute the case with a special prosecutor.
Bowles said it was “shocking” that the prosecutors have filed the new tampering charge 20 months after the investigation began, “with no prior notice or any witness statements, lab reports, or evidence to support it.”
In a filing earlier this month, special prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis alleged that Gutierrez Reed had been “drinking heavily and smoking marijuana in the evenings during the shooting of Rust.” They argued that was relevant to the case because she was “likely” hungover when she loaded a live round into Baldwin’s gun.
They also alleged that after the shooting, Gutierrez Reed had “walked off with the firearm for a considerable amount of time” before the deputies arrived on scene. The prosecutors suggested at the time that Gutierrez Reed could be charged with tampering with evidence, though they did not mention the drug allegation.
Bowles has filed a motion seeking to throw out the case. A preliminary hearing is due to be held in August.
In his latest filing, Bowles argued that it has become clear that prosecutors are trying to sweep exculpatory evidence “under the rug.” He argued that if Shilling had not accidentally copied him on his email, the defense would not have known about his “extremely negative” views of the investigation.
Shilling sent the email on Tuesday to Carmack-Altwies, copying two other prosecutors and Bowles. In it, he confirmed that he was terminating his agreement to work on the case, as the new special prosecutors want their own investigator to handle it going forward. Toward the end, Shilling added the aside disparaging the Sheriff’s Office.
Morrissey responded to Bowles, asking him to delete the email as it was intended for Lewis.
In the filing, Bowles said he has since learned that Shilling is under a non-disclosure agreement. Bowles alleged that the state is trying to suppress Shilling’s statements, which could be exculpatory for Gutierrez Reed.
Shilling drafted the D.A.’s statements of probable cause supporting the original charges, in which he spelled out numerous allegations that Baldwin and Gutierrez Reed had been reckless and had caused Hutchins’ death.
“The fact that he wrote the charges in the manner that he did, but now professes great concern with the quality of the investigation, is a very important and exculpatory matter,” Bowles wrote.
The special prosecutors and the Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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