'Rust' armorer files emergency motion seeking new trial and release from jail

Mar. 18—Former Rust production armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, convicted of involuntary manslaughter earlier this month and held in the Santa Fe County jail, is asking for a new trial, citing a recent state Supreme Court ruling reversing convictions in another high-profile case.

Gutierrez-Reed's attorney, Jason Bowles, filed an emergency motion Friday also seeking her release from jail, according to online court records.

Bowles' motion cites a New Mexico Supreme Court ruling issued Thursday, about a week after Gutierrez-Reed's conviction, in which justices reversed convictions for day care workers in a child's death in Portales based on what they called flawed jury instructions.

That also would apply to Gutierrez-Reed's case, the defense attorney argues.

Gutierrez-Reed was charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed on the Rust film set south of Santa Fe by a bullet from a revolver star and producer Alec Baldwin was holding during a scene walk-through.

Prosecutors have said Gutierrez-Reed, hired to handle guns and ammunition for the production, unknowingly brought live rounds onto the film set and inadvertently loaded one — instead of a dummy round — into Baldwin's .45 revolver. Baldwin pointed the weapon at the camera Hutchins was operating and pulled the trigger, according to the prosecution.

Baldwin, who also faces a charge of involuntary manslaughter, has denied he pulled the trigger. His attorneys filed motions late last week seeking dismissal of his case and sanctions against special prosecutors over how they handled the grand jury proceedings.

Santa Fe County jurors deliberated for only about 2 1/2 hours March 6 before convicting Gutierrez-Reed after a two-week trial.

Bowles said they were given poor instructions.

The March 14 ruling he cites in his emergency motion granted a new trial for two day care workers convicted in the 2017 death of a 1-year-old girl and injuries to another child, both left in a hot car. Jurors were given confusing instructions at the women's joint trial in 2019, the high court found.

Justices ruled jurors could have been confused and misdirected by "the unfortunate use" of the conjunctive term "and/or" in their instructions.

"The term and/or has proved singularly unsuited to formulating clear and effective jury instructions, to the degree that our trial courts would be well-served to avoid its use in jury instructions altogether," New Mexico Supreme Court Justice Michael E. Vigil wrote in the opinion.

"This is precisely the argument that Ms. Gutierrez Reed made in jury instruction arguments before this Court," Bowles wrote in his motion.

"These arguments were overruled and the State made the same instructional error in this case using "and/or" acts and allowing the jury to not be unanimous on any one particular act," he wrote.

Jury instruction No. 12A in Gutierrez-Reed's trial featured the phrase "and/or" in an instruction pertaining to her involuntary manslaughter charge. Prosecutors brought the charge under two different theories: She had committed an unlawful act; she had committed a lawful act "without due caution and circumspection."

The instruction tells jurors that to find her guilty, they must determine the state had proved to their satisfaction Gutierrez-Reed had loaded live ammunition into a firearm intended to contain only inert ammunition "and/or" had failed to perform an adequate safety check of the ammunition she loaded into the firearm.

"This jury instruction issue is virtually certain to result in a reversal of the trial conviction," Bowles wrote in his motion. "It would be a manifest injustice to keep Ms. Gutierrez Reed incarcerated, while further proceedings related to this important issue occur in this Court, the Court of Appeals or Supreme Court."

Gutierrez-Reed's lack of a criminal history and lack of violations while she was awaiting her trial further justify releasing her, Bowles wrote.

"She is neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community," he added.

Bowles has filed a request for a hearing on the motion, but it has not yet been set.

Gutierrez-Reed faces a maximum 18 months of incarceration at her sentencing, scheduled April 15.

Baldwin has entered a not-guilty plea in his case, set to go to trial in July.

His attorneys filed a motion last week requesting the charge be dismissed on the grounds that special prosecutors Karri Morrissey and Jason Lewis broke state law by not presenting evidence favorable to Baldwin to the grand jury that indicted him.