Lawyers for 'Rust' armorer ask court to dismiss charges

May 18—Attorneys for the woman who was in charge of weapons and ammunition on the Rust movie set filed a motion Thursday asking the court to dismiss the charges against her, arguing the case had been tainted by "constitutional and ethical violations" on the part of prosecutors.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who faces a fourth-degree felony count of involuntary manslaughter, is the only person still facing charges in the high-profile case, in which a revolver held by actor Alec Baldwin discharged a bullet, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza in 2021. Prosecutors dismissed an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin last month.

Gutierrez-Reed's attorneys — Jason Bowles and Todd Bullion — cite numerous instances of what they call prosecutorial misconduct on the part of First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies and former special prosecutor Andrea Reeb as reasons the case against her should be dismissed with prejudice.

"The prosecutorial misconduct in this case began at inception and has infected this prosecution at every turn," they wrote in the motion which offers a scathing 33-page indictment of the district attorney's handling of the case, which they say violated Gutierrez-Reed's due process rights and destroyed her chances of receiving a fair trial.

"They directed a sloppy investigation in which key evidence was destroyed, make overly aggressive charging decisions, including an elementary constitutional mistake, and undertook road shows to disparage Reed and promote their own personal brands," the motion says.

Carmack-Altwies did not respond to an email and phone message seeking comment. Neither did special prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis, who where appointed to handle the case in March.

"I don't want to comment on a pending case that I am not on anymore," Reeb said in a text message. "The attorneys who are assigned can address all these issues in court."

By most accounts, the shooting was the result of live rounds being mistakenly mixed with dummy rounds on set.

However, Gutierrez-Reed's attorneys say in their motion, the district attorney began giving media interviews within five days of the shooting indicating charges would likely be forthcoming despite that fact police hadn't then, and still haven't, determined the source of the bullet that struck Hutchins.

"Throughout the fall of 2021 and the first half of 2022, the District Attorney's Office repeatedly gave nationally televised interviews and issues statements to the press that improperly commented on important — and contested — factual conclusions," the motion says.

The motion delves into two issues on which the prosecution has already run into trouble in court — the appointment of Reeb, who is also a state House member, as special prosecutor and the prosecution's attempt to hit Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed with a five-year firearm enhancement that wasn't in the law at the time of the shooting.

The defense motion criticizes the prosecutors for the language they used in public statements when challenged on both points. After dropping the five-year enhancement, the motion says, the district attorney announced "not that it had filed an unconstitutional charge, but that it was withdrawing the enhancement to "avoid further litigious distractions by Baldwin and his attorneys."

Prosecutors reacted similarly when District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer ruled Carmack-Altwies could not work as co-counsel with Reeb, the motion says, and "never acknowledged the constitutional violations or issued corrective statements." In the monthslong period during which Carmack-Altwies and Reeb worked together on the case, the motion says, the prosecutors "made several very prejudicial and improper extrajudicial statements in the media, in violation of ethical rules for prosecutors."

The defense motion says the case has also been marred by evidentiary problems, including law enforcement's failure to secure the scene immediately following the shooting. A prop cart containing weapons and ammunition was left unattended and the prop master was allowed to discard ammunition from the set, the motion says, and the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office "decided not to seek fingerprint or DNA testing of live rounds found on the set to identify who was responsible for bringing them there."

Sheriff Adan Mendoza could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The motion also highlights the destruction of parts of the revolver during FBI ballistics testing.

"Mr. Baldwin's charges have now been dismissed, on the grounds that the firearm was 'modified' and that the FBI's destruction of [part of the weapon] renders an ultimate determination now impossible or near impossible," the motion says. "The new special prosecutor must have determined these facts were exculpatory to Baldwin, as she dismissed his charges. If so they were also exculpatory as to Hanna Gutierrez-Reed."

David Halls, the production's assistant director at the time of the shooting at the Bonanza Creek Ranch south of Santa Fe, accepted a plea deal in late March on a count of negligent use of a deadly weapon. Gutierrez-Reed's motion says that arrangement was also tainted by impropriety, including the fact that his attorney made a campaign donation to Reeb.

The lawyers are asking the charges be dismissed or, if they aren't, the court at least suppress evidence including the testimony of witnesses "interviewed by the unauthorized combination of Carmack-Alwies and Reeb ... and the forensic testing on the live rounds and the firearm."

An order granting a prosecution motion to transfer evidence recovered from the scene, including multiple projectiles, from the sheriff's office to a ballistics expert for forensic testing was also filed in the case Thursday.

A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for August.