Prosecutors in the “Rust” movie shooting case want to keep secret the identity of a witness who says film armorer Hannah Gutiererez-Reed handed off a bag of cocaine after her initial police interview following the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on set in 2021.
Gutierrez-Reed, already facing an involuntary manslaughter charge for reportedly loading a live round into the gun actor Alec Baldwin was using during a rehearsal, was charged last week with evidence tampering for the alleged drug hand-off, as CrimeOnline previously reported. Prosecutors say she interfered with the investigation by doing so.
“The circumstances of the transfer of evidence strongly support the charge that the defendant transferred the cocaine to avoid prosecution and prevent law enforcement from obtaining highly inculpatory evidence directly related the defendant’s handling of the firearm and the circumstances of the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins,” the prosecutors wrote in a motion filed Thursday in a New Mexico court, NBC News reports.
Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed, 25, were initially the only people charged in Hutchins’ fatal shooting after then-special prosecutor and state representative Andrea Reeb submitted a lengthy report that did not conclude who was responsible for bringing live ammunition onto the movie set or loading it into the prop gun. David Halls, an assistant director, was given a plea deal to a misdemeanor before charges against Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed were announced.
Reeb stepped down from the investigation, however, when Baldwin’s attorneys pointed out a state law that prevented members of the New Mexico legislature from simultaneously working for the executive branch of the government. The manslaughter charge against Baldwin was subsequently dropped, without prejudice.
Earlier, prosecutors had been forced to drop a weapons enhancement charge against both Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed because the legislature passed the law allowing such a charge after the shooting.
District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies also stepped aside from the investigation and appointed Kari Morrisey and Jason Lewis as special prosecutors. They are responsible for the new charge against Gutierrez-Reed, which her attorney calls “retaliatory and vindictive.” Jason Bowles opposes the prosecutors’ move to keep secret the identity of their confidential informant.
“The state wants to publish salacious allegations about Ms. Gutierrez-Reed in a secret procedure, which is not condoned by the rules or constitution,” Bowles said in an email to NBC. “If the state really believes these allegations, why the secrecy?”
Lewis and Morrissey say that the informant fears being “blacklisted” from the movie industry for coming forward.
Bowles is seeking to have the entire case against his client tossed.
Gutierrez-Reed is set to make a first appearance on the tampering charge on July 19. A preliminary hearing is scheduled to begin August 9.
Complicating the case further is an email from the district attorney’s former investigator, Robert Schilling — a former chief of the New Mexico State Police — to prosecutors calling the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office’s handling of the case “reprehensible and unprofessional.” Schilling accidentally sent the mail to defense attorney Jason Bowles instead of prosecutor Jason Lewis.
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[Featured image: Hannah Gutierrez-Reed/Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office]
