Alec Baldwin Objects To Hannah Gutierrez-Reed's Immunity To Testify In 'Rust' Trial

Actor Alec Baldwin has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the October 2021 shooting of "Rust" cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Earlier this year, armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was sentenced to the state maximum of 18 months behind bars after a jury spent less than three hours finding her guilty of the same charge.

In court documents obtained by The Blast, Alec Baldwin's legal team opposed a motion to grant Hannah Gutierrez-Reed immunity when testifying in his "Rust" trial.

In court documents obtained by The Blast, Alec Baldwin's legal team has objected to a motion presented by the State of New Mexico that would grant Hannah Gutierrez-Reed immunity if she were to testify during his trial in July.

"The State's late-filed motion for use immunity to secure live testimony from Hannah Gutierrez-Reed should be denied," the filing states. "The testimony the State purports to seek is contained in Gutierrez-Reed's prior statements the State has had for years."

"If the State felt it needed a grant of use immunity in this matter, it should have filed this motion when it first learned Gutierrez-Reed intended to assert her Fifth Amendment privilege," Baldwin's legal team argued. "The State did not do so and all parties continued to prepare for trial on the understanding that Gutierrez-Reed would be unavailable at trial."

"The late addition of Gutierrez-Reed to the State's witness list to provide open-ended, unspecified testimony at this late date is unjustified and prejudicial," the statement concludes, adding, "The motion should be denied."

According to court documents filed by lead prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey in April, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed said that she wants to see Alec Baldwin "in jail" in phone calls that were recorded from prison. The revelation was made in a court document that outlined the prosecution's objection to her request for a conditional discharge.

Although the court documents did not contain transcripts of the family members, they did contain summaries of the calls, in the words of the prosecution. Her phone calls had been used during a sentencing hearing, in which she was accused of displaying a "total failure to accept responsibility" for putting live ammunition in the firearm that was handed to Baldwin on set in October 2021.

During separate conversations recorded from prison, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed used foul language to refer to the jurors who found them guilty. She called them "a--holes" and even reportedly called Morrissey a "b-tch." The documents state that the "Rust" armorer is reportedly "mad that the whole thing got pinned on her."

According to one reported phone call, "Hannah wants them to put Alec Baldwin in jail also" while maintaining that "Hannah says that if she is subpoenaed to Baldwin's trial she will not show up."

In response to the summary of the phone calls, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed's lawyer Jason Bowles told People magazine, "It’s really unfair to characterize or cherry-pick comments someone may or may not have made while they were upset and very recently incarcerated. But, many aspects of this prosecution have displayed no concern for fairness in favor of a win-at-all-costs attitude."

Although Alec Baldwin's lawyers have added Hannah Gutierrez-Reed to their witness list, the former armorer invoked her Fifth Amendment privilege at a pretrial interview held on May 14. She invoked the Fifth Amendment in order to avoid incriminating herself as she awaits her appeal. However, prosecutors have asked the court to grant her "use immunity," which means that anything she says will not be held against her.

As The Blast previously reported, the prosecutors warned the court that if Gutierrez-Reed “is not granted use immunity the defendant will likely attempt to have her previous statements admitted," and went on to note, "This requires the defendant to demonstrate that Ms. Gutierrez is unavailable due to the assertion of her Fifth Amendment privilege.”

Even if Hannah Gutierrez-Reed does not take the witness stand, Alec Baldwin's lawyers can still play clips of her interview with police during their initial investigation immediately after the shooting. Still, as The Blast previously reported, lawyers representing the "30 Rock" actor are trying to get the case thrown out of court before it starts in July. In a recent filing from June 6, Baldwin's legal team argued that the gun had been destroyed during FBI testing and therefore the case should be dropped due to the destruction of evidence.

“Defendant Alec Baldwin now has no ability to examine or test the gun in its original state to disprove the government’s theory that he pulled the trigger on the day of the accident,” the statement continues, noting that “Alec Baldwin repeatedly told investigators that he had not pulled the trigger and the gun just ‘went off.’” Baldwin first declared that he did not pull the trigger on the firearm in an ABC News interview that took place in December 2021, less than two months after the accidental shooting.

If convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Alec Baldwin faces 18 months in prison, which could interfere with his plans to start a reality show featuring him, his wife Hilaria Baldwin, and their seven children. His trial is scheduled to begin on July 10.