‘Rust’ Armorer Waives Right to Preliminary Hearing as Manslaughter Case Moves Forward
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Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the Rust armorer and the last defendant in New Mexico’s criminal case over the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, has waived her right to a preliminary hearing, paving the way for the actual trial to begin soon.
Gutierrez-Reed submitted the waiver Friday, Aug. 4, with the preliminary hearing set to begin next week. During the hearing, prosecutors would’ve worked to convince the judge that there was enough evidence against Gutierrez-Reed to proceed to trial. Gutierrez-Reed has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering and has pleaded not guilty.
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Gutierrez-Reed suffered a setback earlier this week, as the Los Angeles Times notes, when a judge rejected her petition to dismiss the charges against her. The decision to skip the preliminary hearing suggests Gutierrez-Reed and her attorney believed prosecutors would’ve succeeded in convincing the judge the case was ready for trial.
A lawyer for Gutierrez-Reed did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s request for comment. A spokesperson for the New Mexico Administrative Office of the Courts said only, “Hannah Gutierrez today waived her right to a preliminary hearing in State v. Hannah Gutierrez. Waiving the hearing allows the case to proceed toward trial.”
An exact start date for the trial has yet to be announced.
The prosecution has faced numerous setbacks — including several self-inflicted errors — as they’ve tried to bring a case over Hutchins’ death. The cinematographer was killed in Oct. 2021 when Alec Baldwin inadvertently discharged a prop gun that had been loaded with a live round, believing the prop gun had been “cold.”
Charges were brought against Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed back in January, but lawyers for the pair successfully got the original charges downgraded because they were filed under a new firearm law that was passed months after the shooting took place. Then, both a special prosecutor and the Santa Fe County district attorney had to step down from the case, leading to the appointment of two new special prosecutors in March. In April, prosecutors decided to drop manslaughter charges against Baldwin.
Earlier this summer, as Gutierrez-Reed tried to get the charges against her dismissed, prosecutors alleged that she “heavily” drank alcohol and smoked marijuana the night before Hutchins’ death. They went on to claim that it was “likely” that Gutierrez-Reed “was hung over when she inserted a live bullet into a gun that she knew was going to be used at some point by an actor while filming a shooting scene with other actors and crew members.”
At the time, Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney responded, “The case is so weak that they now have chosen to resort to character assassination claims about Hannah. The prosecution has abandoned the idea of doing justice and getting to the actual truth apparently.”
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