New Mexico judge to weigh whether 'Rust' armorer Hannah Gutierrez should be freed

One month after dismissing Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter charges in the deadly “Rust” shooting, a New Mexico judge has indicated she will consider whether weapons handler Hannah Gutierrez also should be set free — or given a new trial.

After a two-week trial, Gutierrez was convicted in March of involuntary manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Gutierrez has acknowledged loading the gun that day. Prosecutors contend she brought the live bullets with her to the “Rust” movie set near Santa Fe, N.M., in October 2021 — an allegation that Gutierrez has consistently denied.

The prosecution has been in turmoil since Baldwin’s case collapsed in July amid revelations that Santa Fe County Sheriff’s deputies and a special prosecutor had withheld potential evidence from the actor-producer’s lawyers.

The admission — which came on the third day of the actor’s high-profile trial in Santa Fe — stunned the judge and New Mexico’s legal community.

New Mexico First Judicial District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer was furious with deputies and the special prosecutor, Kari T. Morrissey, for allegedly withholding possible evidence that could have been helpful to Baldwin’s case.

A retired police officer from Arizona had turned over cartridges to deputies in March, saying they might match the fatal bullet in the “Rust” shooting that killed cinematographer Hutchins.

But deputies assigned the bag of evidence a different case number than that used for “Rust” shooting evidence, making it impossible for Baldwin’s team to find the bullets as they sifted through the sheriff’s files and boxes of evidence to prepare for the actor’s trial.

After the case against Baldwin was dismissed, Gutierrez’s Albuquerque lawyer, Jason Bowles, filed a motion to get Gutierrez released from the New Mexico women’s prison, where she is currently serving an 18-month sentence for the felony conviction.

In a motion, Bowles argued that Morrissey — who was the special prosecutor for Gutierrez’s case — also withheld evidence in advance of the Gutierrez trial, including a recorded interview with weapons provider Seth Kenney, who was a key prosecution witness. Bowles asked for a new trial or dismissal of Gutierrez’s case due to alleged “severe and ongoing discovery violations by the state.”

“There can be no legitimate debate that the state violated Ms. Gutierrez‘s due process rights,” Bowles wrote, asking the judge to “order a new trial or dismissal of the case for egregious prosecutorial misconduct. The Court should also order Ms. Gutierrez’s release.”

On Tuesday, Marlowe Sommer scheduled a Sept. 27 hearing to decide whether Gutierrez should be released or given a new trial.

Morrissey has denied the allegations of misconduct and has opposed the motion for a new trial.

She noted that Bowles was aware of the ammunition cartridges provided to deputies in March, the disputed evidence in the Baldwin case.

The former police officer, Troy Teske, who brought the bullets to New Mexico, is a close friend of Gutierrez’s father, Hollywood gun handler Thell Reed. Morrissey has said the bullets were not relevant because they were in Arizona, not New Mexico, at the time of the “Rust” shooting.

Teske was in Santa Fe in March in case he was called as a defense witness. But Bowles did not call Teske to testify.