‘Rust’ Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed Gets Bad News on Prison Release

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the imprisoned Rust armorer who was convicted of manslaughter, will remain behind bars while a judge decides if she should be freed and granted a new trial based on new evidence. Gutierrez-Reed got the bad news on Thursday — The Blast reports — with Judge Mary Marlowe Sommerstating that she will rule on the matter next week.

In a virtual hearing hosted on Sept. 26, Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney Jason Bowles argued that the 27-year-old should be released from prison and granted a new trial due to evidence that emerged during the trial of Alec Baldwin who had also been charged with manslaughter. 

In October 2021, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed on the set of Rust after a prop gun, held by Baldwin, was discharged. The gun was initially not believed to be loaded with live rounds. In January 2023, it was announced that both Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed would be charged with involuntary manslaughter. Baldwin’s charges were dropped at one point, but later they were re-filed. Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty, in May, of involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death. In April, she was to serve 18 months in prison.

Baldwin’s trial commenced in July and, in a shocking move, was dismissed by Judge Sommer during the trial’s evidentiary hearing over a defense motion to dismiss based on “concealed” and “critical” evidence that Baldwin’s lawyer filed. The evidence was bullets from the ammunition manufacturer that were turned over to Santa Fe, New Mexico police by ex-Arizona cop Troy Teske, of which Baldwin’s lawyers had not been made aware.

During Gutierrez-Reed’s virtual hearing on Thursday, Bowles stated that his team also had not been made aware of this evidence during their trial earlier in the year. He also requested that special prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey be removed from the case. Morrissey rebutted that Bowles had not provided a legal basis for his request to remove her, and claimed that she also was not aware of the ammunition until Baldwin’s trial.

Morrissey added that she and Bowles had communicated about the ammunition and advised him that she wouldn’t be seeking to acquire the ammunition, and that he also did not attempt to get it or ask Troy Teske to testify during Gutierrez-Reed’s trial. Morrissey went on to call Bowles’ situation a “strategic error,” and argued that since the new evidence was discovered after her Gutierrez-Reed’s trial there is no legal merit in dismissing her manslaughter conviction. Additionally, Morrissey slammed Bowles for not doing his “due diligence” after he complained that there was too much evidence to go over in the short amount of time he had to prepare before the trial.

The judge has decided to consider the two motions separately: The first motion is if Gutierrez-Reed’s conviction should be dismissed and she given new trial. The second motion was whether or not to release Hannah Gutierrez-Reed from prison. The judge says he will deliver his decision next week.