‘Rust’ Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed Loses Bid To Toss Case Before Trial Start Date

The trial for "Rust" armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is set to begin with jury selection next week.

In January 2023, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed and actor Alec Baldwin were charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. In April 2023, the charges against the "30 Rock" actor were dropped without prejudice pending further investigation. However, the charges were refiled in January 2024.

In the summer of 2023, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was charged with tampering with evidence after prosecutors claimed that they found a witness who alleged that the armorer had transferred cocaine to another individual on the day that Hutchins was killed, thus impeding the police investigation into her death.

The rookie armorer has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Although her trial was initially scheduled for December 2023, it was postponed until February 2024. Alec Baldwin is not expected to be called as a witness in her trial, given his own legal troubles.

On Wednesday, February 14, 2024, a judge in Santa Fe rejected a last-minute bid to throw out the case against "Rust" armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, despite repeated attempts by her legal team to get the case tossed.

Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyer, Jason Bowles, had unsuccessfully argued that it was impossible for the armorer to receive a fair trial when the state turned over hundreds of attorney-client text messages to a key witness, as per Variety. However, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer refused to dismiss the case and did not find the disclosure prejudicial to her case.

The trial is now scheduled to begin on Wednesday, February 21, 2024. She has submitted a plea of not guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence due to allegations of her drug use. Hannah Gutierrez-Reed has been accused of being reckless on set in terms of firearm safety. Prosecutors have alleged that she not only brought live ammunition onto the movie set, but they have also claimed that she was the one who put the live bullet into a gun that Baldwin used for a scene inside a church.

It is worth noting that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was not inside the church when the gun went off, striking Halyna Hutchins and director Joel Souza, who was standing directly behind the cinematographer. Souza was hospitalized as a result of his injuries, but Hutchins did not survive.

It was actually first assistant director Dave Halls who had told Alec Baldwin that the gun was a "cold gun," meaning that it did not contain live rounds. Halls reached a plea deal with prosecutors and pled guilty to the negligent use of a firearm. He was given six months of probation.

On Wednesday, February 14, 2024, Judge Sommer dealt with several different motions ahead of next week's trial. Declining to dismiss the trial, Judge Sommer noted that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed's attorney, Jason Bowles, had signed a consent form allowing law enforcement officials to search the armorer's phone. The consent form did not exclude attorney-client communications.

Judge Sommer also rejected a motion to sever the two counts to be heard at two separate trials. In the summer of 2023, special prosecutors alleged that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed gave someone on set a bag of cocaine after the shooting. Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey has claimed that the rookie armorer was attempting to conceal evidence that she was impaired during filming.

In court documents obtained by The Blast, Kari Morrissey quoted several text messages between Hannah Gutierrez-Reed and others that allegedly make references to cocaine and marijuana. However, the armorer's legal team has argued that the claims are speculative and felt that drug claims may raise the likelihood that potential jurors will convict her on the involuntary manslaughter charges she is also facing.

Although Judge Sommer declined to sever the two counts, she did ask prosecutors to limit the references to the armorer's drug and alcohol use at the trial, stating that some of the state’s proposed evidence would be “unfair to the defendant."

In addition to the drug charges, special prosecutor Kari Morrissey asked a judge to exclude a report from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which blamed the production company for relaxed safety standards on set. Hannah Gutierrez-Reed's legal team is hoping to use the report during the trial in order to redirect blame from the armorer to the production company. In the end, Judge Summer decided that the OSHA report would be allowed into evidence during the trial.

However, Judge Sommer will not allow Jason Bowles to call an expert witness on safety standards in union productions, as this witness only came forward within the last ten days. When prosecutors argued that they had no time to prepare for this new witness, Jason Bowles proposed that the trial could be delayed.

However, Judge Sommer stayed firm that the trial, already delayed from December 2023, will begin on February 21, 2024, as planned.