Days after New Mexico’s case against Alec Baldwin collapsed amid allegations of evidence concealment in the “Rust” shooting, armorer Hannah Gutierrez asked a judge to dismiss her case as well.
Gutierrez’s lawyer, Jason Bowles, filed a 23-page motion late Tuesday asking that either Gutierrez’s involuntary manslaughter conviction be overturned or that she receive a new trial due to “severe and ongoing discovery violations by the state.” Bowles alleged the proceedings against Gutierrez were unfair because the state also withheld evidence in her case.
Gutierrez is currently serving an 18-month sentence for her role in the shooting death of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the low-budget western set on Oct. 21, 2021.
The move comes as New Mexico’s legal world reels from disclosures made during a dramatic hearing on Friday, in which New Mexico First Judicial Circuit Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the felony criminal charge against Baldwin — abruptly ending the actor’s high-profile trial.
The judge became alarmed after Baldwin’s attorneys alleged misconduct, including alleged collusion between the prosecutor and Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies to conceal potential evidence — a bag of ammunition — from defense attorneys.
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Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, center, questions special prosecutor Kari Morrissey, second from left, about evidence not turned over to defense attorney Alex Spiro, second from right, during actor Alec Baldwin’s trial July 12.
(Eddie Moore / Associated Press)
A bag of cartridges that a retired law enforcement officer, Troy Teske, had turned over to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office in March after Gutierrez’s trial ended is at issue. Teske, a friend of Gutierrez’s stepfather Thell Reed, had offered the evidence to prosecutors late last fall, but special prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey declined.
Morrissey has said that, after looking at a photo of the cartridges, she determined they did not match the live “Rust” ammunition. The sheriff’s crime scene technician also testified last week that the bullets were not like those found on “Rust.”
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However, after Marlowe Sommer donned blue latex gloves and opened the evidence bag in a dramatic hearing on Friday, it was revealed that three of the shell casings were stamped with Starline Brass, which was an identifying characteristic of the “Rust” bullets.
Despite warnings from the judge that she did not have to testify, Morrissey took the witness stand to give sworn testimony about her handling of the Teske ammunition and the Baldwin case.
Shortly before, Morrissey’s co-counsel, Erlinda O. Johnson, resigned from the case. Johnson told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo that she stepped down because Morrissey had told her she hadn’t seen the ammunition before — but that appeared not to be the case.
“We have an obligation as prosecutors … our obligation is to make sure all the evidence gets turned over,” Johnson told Cuomo. “We don’t get to decide what the defense is going to be.”
Morrissey, via email, said she would provide a written response to the Gutierrez motion.
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Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey talks about evidence not turned over to the defense during actor Alec Baldwin’s trial for involuntary manslaughter for the 2021 fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
(Eddie Moore / Associated Press)
Last week, she testified that she did not believe the Teske rounds had evidentiary value because they had never left Arizona. The “Rust” shooting occurred outside Santa Fe, N.M. Teske was in Santa Fe for Gutierrez’s trial in March. He was scheduled to testify on behalf of Gutierrez, but Bowles did not call him to the stand.
The rounds were allegedly part of a batch that had been supplied to “Rust” weapons and ammunition provider Seth Kenney. Baldwin’s attorneys alleged that Kenney may have co-mingled live bullets with so-called dummies — an allegation that Kenney has long denied.
Bowles also pointed to an interview of Kenney, which wasn’t disclosed to the defense until after Gutierrez was convicted.
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“Ms. Gutierrez-Reed respectfully requests this Court order a new trial or dismissal of the case for egregious prosecutorial misconduct,” Bowles wrote in Tuesday’s motion.
Actor Alec Baldwin, left, at his trial July 12 for involuntary manslaughter for the 2021 fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
(Ramsay de Give / Associated Press)
Bowles argued that, among the allegations of misconduct that came to light last week, crime scene technician Marissa Poppell “had been directed to place the Teske rounds in a separate case file with a separate number (not Rust) and create a report that was also filed in that separate case file so that these would not be disclosed to the defense,” he wrote in the Gutierrez court filing.
Gutierrez had been scheduled to testify in Baldwin’s criminal trial but Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case on what was scheduled to be the third day of testimony.
Forget the “video game movie” curse;The Mortuary Assistantis a bone-chilling triumph that stands entirely on its own two feet. Starring Willa Holland (Arrow) as Rebecca Owens, the film follows a newly certified mortician whose “overtime shift” quickly devolves into a grueling battle for her soul.
What Makes It Work
The film expertly balances the stomach-churning procedural work of embalming with a spiraling demonic nightmare. Alongside a mysterious mentor played by Paul Sparks (Boardwalk Empire), Rebecca is forced to confront both ancient evils and her own buried traumas. And boy, does she have a lot of them.
Thanks to a full-scale, practical River Fields Mortuary set, the film drips with realism, like you can almost smell the rot and bloat of the bodies through the screen.
The skin effects are hauntingly accurate. The way the flesh moves during surgical scenes is so visceral. I’ve seen a lot of flesh wounds in horror films and in real life, and the bodies, skin, and organs. The Mortuary Assistant (especially in the opening scene) looks so real that I skipped supper after watching it. And that’s saying something. Your girl likes to eat.
Co-written by the game’s creator, Brian Clarke, the movie dives deeper into the demonic mythology. Whether you’ve seen every ending or don’t know a scalpel from a trocar, the story is perfectly self-contained. If you’ve never played the game, or played it a hundred times, the film works equally well, which is hard to do when it comes to game adaptations.
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Nailed It
This film does a lot of things right, but the isolation of the night shift is suffocating. Between the darkness of the hallways and the “residents” that refuse to stay still, the film delivers a relentlessly immersive experience. And thankfully, although this movie is filled with dark rooms and shadows, it’s easy to see every little thing. Don’t you hate it when a movie is so dark that you can’t see what’s happening? It’s one of my pet peeves.
The oh-so-awesome Jeremiah Kipp directs the film and has made something absolutely nightmare-inducing. Kipp recently joined us for an interview, took us inside the film, discussed its details and the game’s lore, and so much more. I urge you to check out our interview. He’s awesome!
The Verdict
This isn’t just a cash-grab; it’s a high-effort adaptation that respects the source material while elevating the horror genre. With incredible special effects and a powerhouse cast, it’s the kind of movie that will make you rethink working late ever again. Dropping on Friday the 13th, this is a must-watch for horror fans. It’s grisly, intelligent, and genuinely terrifying.
A former executive at Live Nation, the world’s largest live entertainment company, is suing the company, alleging that he was wrongfully terminated after he raised concerns about alleged financial misconduct and improper accounting practices.
Nicholas Rumanes alleges he was “fraudulently induced” in 2022 to leave a lucrative position as head of strategic development at a real estate investment trust to create a new role as executive vice president of development and business practice at Beverly Hills-based Live Nation.
In his new position, Rumanes said, he raised “serious and legitimate alarm” over the the company’s business practices.
As a result, he says, he was “unlawfully terminated,” according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
“Rumanes was, simply put, promised one job and forced to accept another. And then he was cut loose for insisting on doing that lesser job with integrity and honesty,” according to the lawsuit.
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He is seeking $35 million in damages.
Representatives for Live Nation were not immediately available for comment.
The lawsuit comes a week after a federal jury in Manhattan found that Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary had operated a monopoly over major concert venues, controlling 86% of the concert market.
Rumanes’ lawsuit describes a “culture of deception” at Live Nation, saying its “basic business model was to misstate and exaggerate financial figures in efforts to solicit and secure business.”
Such practices “spanned a wide spectrum of projects in what appeared to be a company-wide pattern of financial misrepresentation and misleading disclosures,” the lawsuit states.
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Rumanes says he received materials and documents that showed that the company inflated projected revenues across multiple venue development projects.
Additionally, Rumanes contends that the company violated a federal law that requires independent financial auditing and transparency and instead ran Live Nation “through a centralized, opaque structure” that enables it to “bypass oversight and internal checks and balances.”
In 2010, as a condition of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger, the newly formed company agreed to a consent decree with the government that prohibited the firm from threatening venues to use Ticketmaster. In 2019 the Justice Department found that the company had repeatedly breached the agreement, and it extended the decree.
Rumanes contends that he brought his concerns to the attention of the company’s management, but his warnings were “repeatedly ignored.”
At the centre of Madhuvidhu directed by Vishnu Aravind is a house where only men reside, three generations of them living in harmony. Unlike the Anjooran household in Godfather, this is not a house where entry is banned to women, but just that women don’t choose to come here. For Amrithraj alias Ammu (Sharafudheen), the protagonist, 28 marriage proposals have already fallen through although he was not lacking in interest.
When a not-so-cordial first meeting with Sneha (Kalyani Panicker) inevitably turns into mutual attraction, things appear about to change. But some unexpected hiccups are waiting for them, their different religions being one of them. Writers Jai Vishnu and Bipin Mohan do not seem to have any major ambitions with Madhuvidhu, but they seem rather content to aim for the middle space of a feel-good entertainer. Only that they end up hitting further lower.
