‘Rust’ Armorer Wants Conviction Overturned Due to Suppressed Evidence

“Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed is asking a judge to overturn her conviction, alleging she was subject to the same sort of prosecutorial misconduct that torpedoed the Alec Baldwin trial last week.

Gutierrez Reed was convicted in March of manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. In a motion filed Tuesday, attorney Jason Bowles stated since then, he has received substantial evidence that should have been disclosed before the trial.

Bowles also asked that Gutierrez Reed be released from prison, and that special prosecutor Kari Morrissey be removed from the case due to misconduct. District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies has expressed her continued support for Morrissey.

On Friday, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer found that the state’s withholding of evidence warranted dismissing Baldwin’s manslaughter case with prejudice.

“How can it be any different with Ms. Gutierrez Reed’s case, with this proven litany of serious discovery abuses?” Bowles argued in his motion. “The intentional withholding of crucial evidence… by the State has compromised the integrity of the entire judicial process.”

Baldwin’s case collapsed after it was revealed that a retired police officer had turned over a cache of bullets to investigators on March 6. Information about those bullets — three of which appeared to match the round that killed Hutchins — was never conveyed to Baldwin’s defense team.

Bowles argues that similar failures also impacted Gutierrez Reed’s trial. He states that a month after the trial was over, Morrissey provided him a previously undisclosed interview of Seth Kenney, the weapons supplier who was a key witness in the case.

Bowles argues that he could have used that interview to impeach Kenney on the witness stand. The motion quotes Kenney as offering positive comments about Gutierrez Reed’s level of experience, and giving conflicting statements about the possibility of sabotage…