New Mexico vs. Alec Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed - Shooting death of Halyna Hutchins on "RUST" movie set *CASE DISMISSED*

‘Rust’ Prosecutors Make It Easy to Find All of Alec Baldwin’s Court Docs

Due to the "high volume of requests," New Mexico authorities are putting everything they have online.

www.indiewire.com

Brian Welk
Feb 2, 2023 2:35 pm

You normally wouldn’t expect this level of accessibility from a government bureaucracy, but the demand to see Alec Baldwin’s public court documents in the “Rust” case have been so high that authorities are just putting it all online. And they’re sending out press releases touting the portal.

New Mexico district attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, who formally charged Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed with two counts of involuntary manslaughter each on Tuesday, has now launched an online portal via the state’s courts. She’s now asking media and the public to access anything and everything pertaining to the “Rust” case there.

If you visit nmcourts.gov, there’s a tab along the left rail that says “High Profile Cases.” Beneath it are all the criminal court documents for the cases against Baldwin, Gutierrez-Reed and “Rust” assistant director David Halls, who had already agreed to a plea deal (and was subsequently charged with negligent use of a deadly weapon). It’s an easy-access, one-stop shop for all your information on one of the most troubling stories to rock Hollywood in years!

 

[Summer_Breeze]

Alec Baldwin's "Rust" denied New Mexico tax incentives ahead of actor's involuntary manslaughter trial

Attorneys for Alec Baldwin's "Rust" said the incentive would have been used to pay a settlement to cinematographer Halyna Hutchins' family.

www.cbsnews.com

July 3, 2024 / 6:29 AM PDT / CBS/AP

Producers of the western movie "Rust" may have to forgo a robust economic incentive as they try to sell the film to distributors and fulfill financial obligations to the immediate family of a cinematographer who was fatally shot by Alec Baldwin during rehearsal in 2021.

New Mexico tax authorities denied an application this spring by Rust Movie Productions for incentives worth as much as $1.6 million, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. A late July deadline for producers to appeal the decision is approaching.

Meanwhile, Baldwin is scheduled to go on trial starting next week on an involuntary manslaughter charge in Halyna Hutchins' death. The lead actor and co-producer of "Rust" was pointing a gun at Hutchins when it went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza.

Melina Spadone, an attorney representing the production company, said the film production tax incentive was going to be used to finance a legal settlement between producers and Hutchins' widower and son.

"The denial of the tax credit has disrupted those financial arrangements," said Spadone, a New York- and Los Angeles-based senior counsel at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. She helped broker the 2022 settlement that rebooted the stalled production of "Rust" in Montana with some of the original cast and crew, including Baldwin and Souza. Filming wrapped up last year.

Terms of the settlement are confidential, but producers say finishing the film was meant to honor Hutchins' artistic vision and generate money for her young son. When the settlement was announced, Baldwin called it a "resolution of this tragic and painful situation" on social media.

"Throughout this difficult process, everyone has maintained the specific desire to do what is best for Halyna's son," Baldwin said in the post.

Court documents indicate that settlement payments are up to a year late, as attorneys for Hutchins' widower determine "next steps" that include whether to resume wrongful death litigation or initiate new claims. Legal representatives for Matthew Hutchins did not respond to telephone and email messages seeking comment.

The prosecution of Baldwin and the film's tax incentive application both have financial implications for New Mexico taxpayers. The Santa Fe district attorney's office says it spent $625,000 on "Rust"-related prosecution through the end of April.

 

[Summer_Breeze]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/08/entertainment/alec-baldwin-rust-trial/index.html

By Elizabeth Wagmeister and Cheri Mossburg, CNN
Published 2:55 PM EDT, Mon July 8, 2024

In a significant victory for the defense, Alec Baldwin’s role as a producer on the movie “Rust” will not be considered in his involuntary manslaughter trial for the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer made the ruling during a motions hearing on Monday, just one day before jury selection is set to begin in the Santa Fe, New Mexico trial. Baldwin’s position as a producer has consistently been part of the prosecution’s strategy to showcase that he had additional responsibility on the movie set beyond his work as the star of the film.

Now, with the judge not allowing evidence related to his role as a producer, the jury will consider Baldwin solely as an actor who was holding the gun involved in the fatal shooting as part of his role – not as the boss or as a supervisor who was responsible for set safety.


“I’m having real difficulty with the state’s position that they want to show that as a producer, he didn’t follow guidelines, and therefore, as an actor, Mr. Baldwin did all these things wrong resulting in the death of Halyna Hutchins because as a producer, he allowed this all to happen,” Marlowe Sommer said.

Baldwin himself was not solely responsible for on-set decisions, the judge said, stating there were other producers on the project.

“The probative value is not substantially outweighed by unfair prejudice and certainly confusion of issues to the jury, so I’m denying evidence of his status as a producer, Marlowe Sommer said.

Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter. It is not known if he will take the stand to testify.

 

[Summer_Breeze]

Alec Baldwin trial day 2: Defense accuses investigators of rush to focus on Baldwin

Alec Baldwin's attorney grilled a state's witness on the investigation into the deadly "Rust' on-set shooting during the second day of the manslaughter trial.

abcnews.go.com

By Meredith Deliso
July 11, 2024, 6:51 PM

Alec Baldwin's attorney grilled a state's witness on the investigation into the deadly shooting on the set of "Rust" during the second day of the actor's manslaughter trial.

<snip>

During cross-examination on Thursday, defense attorney Alex Spiro questioned a crime scene technician on how thorough the probe was into the source of the live bullet, including the search of PDQ Arm & Prop in Albuquerque, which provided the set with firearms and ammunition.

Questioned on how extensively the investigators searched the business, technician Marissa Poppell, who collected evidence in the case, said the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office team "reasonably searched" the warehouse.

When asked if the team collected surveillance footage, which was listed on the search warrant, Poppell said she didn't recall looking for it.

"Isn't the truth that you were just trying to get this over with so that the prosecutors could focus on Alec Baldwin?" Spiro asked.

Poppell responded, "No."

Spiro also asked Poppell about damage to the revolver involved in the shooting that occurred during the FBI's firearms testing.

"At the time that this testing was ordered, you knew that the firearm would no longer be in the same physical condition you recovered it in. Correct?"

"Yes," Poppell said.

Spiro said during opening statements that Baldwin wasn't given the chance to have the gun tested in its original condition, preventing him from being able to "show his truth."

Baldwin has maintained he did not pull the trigger of the firearm, though the FBI's forensic report determined the gun could not have been fired without pulling the trigger.

During opening statements on Wednesday, prosecutors argued Baldwin behaved recklessly and "violated the cardinal rules of firearm safety" during the filming of "Rust." The defense, meanwhile, said the actor "committed no crime" in the "unspeakable tragedy" and the "most critical issue" in the case is how the live bullet got on set.

Poppell testified Thursday that there is no evidence Baldwin brought a live round onto the set or loaded the live round into the gun.

During redirect, prosecutor Kari Morrissey had Poppell confirm that Baldwin has not been charged with involuntary manslaughter for bringing live rounds on the movie set or for loading a live round into the gun.

"Has a person already been tried and convicted for those things?" Morrissey asked.

"Yes," Poppell said, referring to the film's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez.

Gutierrez was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in March. Prosecutors argued she repeatedly failed to maintain proper firearm safety and brought several live rounds onto the set -- including the one that killed Hutchins. She appealed her conviction in May.

Her attorney told ABC News on Tuesday that they have been informed she will be called to testify on Friday and plans to invoke the Fifth Amendment.

Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office Cpl. Alexandra Hancock, the lead detective in the case, testified Thursday that based on her investigation she believed Gutierrez was the only source of the live ammunition on the "Rust" set. Her testimony is set to continue on Friday.

Additional witnesses called on Thursday -- two people who worked for Pietta Firearms, the company that manufactured the revolver involved in the shooting -- testified that the firearm could not have fired without the trigger being pulled.

Before the jury returned from lunch on Thursday, the attorneys argued during a hearing over admitting redactions to Baldwin's interview with a detective following the shooting that the state said spoke to his state of mind.

Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer denied some portions of the transcript from being admitted but did allow in a part where Baldwin talked with his wife and another person about a planned family trip to New Mexico. Morrissey said Baldwin was looking to convince his wife to still come "because they can't get their money back for the plane tickets and they'd like to go ahead and have a good time."

Baldwin left the courtroom at one point during the hearing as Morrissey read a part of his interview that she said spoke to his "motivation to lie about pulling the trigger."

"'I'm 63 years old with six kids. I can't rely on luck anymore,'" Morrissey quoted Baldwin as saying. "He's talking about his career, and that he can't rely on luck anymore. This goes exactly to his motivation not to tell the truth."

Marlowe Sommer said she didn't think the information was that helpful but said, "I'm going to let it in because of the lateness of your redactions."

 

[Summer_Breeze]

Alec Baldwin Trial: Defense Claims Prosecution Withheld 'Good Samaritan' Evidence Backing 'Sabotage' Theory

The idea that someone deliberately mixed live ammunition with dummy rounds on the set of "Rust" was first floated during the armorer's trial in February

www.thewrap.com

Ross A. Lincoln and Stephanie Kaloi
July 11, 2024 @ 8:49 PM

The defense attorney in Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial on Thursday accused prosecutors of withholding evidence provided by a so-called “good Samaritan” he said supports the theory that some kind of sabotage is to blame for the live round that killed Halyna Hutchins on the set of “Rust” in October, 2021.

The prosecution however, revealed that this “good Samaritan” was in fact a longtime family friend of “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed — who was convicted in her own manslaughter trial in March and is now serving an 18 month prison sentence — and that the purported evidence did not actually support the theory at all.

On Thursday, Baldwin’s lawyer Alex Spiro raised the theory, originally presented and shut- down during Gutierrez-Reed’s trial, that someone wanted to sabotage the “Rust” set by putting live rounds into the film’s ammo supply.

While he cross-examined Santa Fe County crime scene technician Marissa Poppell, Spiro asserted that after Gutierrez-Reed was convicted, a “good Samaritan” turned ammunition over to police that matched the bullet that killed Hutchins, and told them it backed the sabotage theory. Spiro then accused prosecutors of hiding this from Baldwin’s defense team.

But prosecutor Kari Morrissey later revealed the identity of the mystery do-gooder: Former officer Troy Teske, who is a longtime friend of Gutierrez-Reed’s father. Morrissey used this connection to call into question Teske’s motivations for coming forward with this purported evidence in the first place.

Then under cross examination by Morrissey, Poppell asserted that the Teske’s evidence didn’t actually match the bullet that killed Hutchins.

“The information that the ‘good Samaritan’ Mr. Teske, the close friend of Hannah Gutierrez’s dad, when he, that ammunition that he brought to you after her conviction, you still have it?” Morrissey asked.


“Yes,” Poppell said.

“You can bring it in here and you can show it to the jury, right?” Morrissey asked. “And they can see for themselves that it does not match the live ammunition from the set of ‘Rust,’ correct?”

“Yes,” Poppell replied.

“And that is obvious when you look at it, is it not?” Morrissey continued, a question Poppell quickly answered in the affirmative.

During her February trial, as well as in TV interviews, Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyer implied that munitions supplier Seth Kenney might have put live bullets into the boxes of “dummy” rounds on the set of “Rust” to undermine the armorer. Kenney denied any involvement in the fatal shooting.


“This idea came up … what if someone sabotaged the set,” Baldwin defense attorney Alex Spiro said Thursday while cross-examining Marissa Poppell, a state’s witness who helped process much of the evidence from the ill-fated set. “This was dismissed early on … but you also need to investigate whether someone from outside the ‘Rust’ set was responsible … you continue to investigate that and you executed search warrants, correct?”

“Not me personally,” Poppell said, “but I remember that was something that needs to be investigated.”

Though Spiro did not directly accuse Kenney, his line of questioning referred back to the supplier several times. “Let me ask you something,” Spiro asked Poppell at one point. “At any point did you become suspicious of Seth Kenney?”

“No,” she answered flatly.

 

[Summer_Breeze]

Judge in Alec Baldwin ‘Rust’ Trial Sends Jurors Home as She Weighs Surprise Motion to Dismiss

Alec Baldwin's lawyers argued that the state's failure to turn over a batch of bullets warrants dismissal of his manslaughter case in 'Rust' trial.

variety.com

Judge in Alec Baldwin ‘Rust’ Trial Sends Jurors Home as She Weighs Surprise Motion to Dismiss​

By Gene Maddaus
Jul 12, 2024 9:03am PT

SANTA FE, N.M. — Alec Baldwin‘s lawyers have filed a surprise motion asking that his manslaughter case be thrown out because the state failed to turn over a batch of bullets to the defense.

In a dramatic moment on Friday morning, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer donned a pair of blue gloves to open an envelope containing the bullets, and had them spread on a table. Though prosecutor Kari Morrissey had asserted that the bullets did not match the fatal round, at least some of them were Starline Brass rounds with silver primers — matching the characteristics of the live bullets found on the set of “Rust.”

The judge then sent the jury home for the weekend to allow for further exploration of the defense motion.

Attorney Luke Nikas argued that the failure to turn over relevant evidence was part of a broader pattern of disclosure violations by the prosecution, and said that enough is enough.

“This is over and over and over again,” Nikas said. “This is not the first time. This is not the second time. It’s not the third time. It’s time for this case to be dismissed.”

Baldwin is on trial for shooting cinematographer Halyna Hutchins while filming “Rust” at the Bonanza Creek Ranch, near Santa Fe, in 2021. He was unaware that his gun contained a live round, and the source of the live bullets has been a key mystery ever since.

 

[Summer_Breeze]

Judge in Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial dismisses case

Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer agreed the prosecution had suppressed evidence and the trial could not continue.

www.nbcnews.com

Jul. 12, 2024, 6:04 PM EDT
By Sumiko Moots and Daniel Arkin
SANTE FE, New Mexico — In a stunning turn of events, the judge in Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial dismissed the case Friday, siding with defense attorneys who argued that prosecutors hid evidence about ammunition that may be linked to the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western movie “Rust” in 2021.

“The sanction of dismissal is the only warranted remedy” in the case, said First Judicial District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer.


Baldwin, 66, sobbed and put his face in his hands as Sommer announced her decision.

<snip>

Baldwin’s lawyers asserted that the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office took possession of live rounds of ammunition as evidence but did not record them in the official case file or reveal their existence to the actor’s defense team.

Marissa Poppell, a sheriff’s office crime scene technician who testified this week, claimed the rounds were not hidden from Baldwin’s lawyers and pushed back on Baldwin lawyer Alex Spiro’s contention that the Colt .45 ammunition matched the round that killed Hutchins at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe County on Oct. 21, 2021.

The Colt .45 rounds were delivered to the sheriff’s office in March by former police officer Troy Teske, a friend of Thell Reed, the stepfather of “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the same day she was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death. The prosecution described Teske as a “good Samaritan.”

 

[Summer_Breeze]

This article has very detailed information about what happened in court today.

Judge dismisses Alec Baldwin's 'Rust' case after defense claims evidence was withheld

The jury was dismissed for the day in Alec Baldwin's "Rust" manslaughter trial while the court discussed a motion the defense filed to dismiss the case.

abcnews.go.com

 

[Summer_Breeze]

 

[Guess Who]

So another prosecutor tanking their own case

 

[Kimster]

“With prejudice” means they can’t retry it, right?

 

[Guess Who]

“With prejudice” means they can’t retry it, right?

Yep. Thrown out.

 

[Cousin Dupree]

Alec Baldwin's criminal case was about ammunition at its shocking beginning and its sudden end

The case against Alec Baldwin centered on how bullets were handled at the beginning and at the end. Baldwin's involuntary manslaughter trial in the killing of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins came to a sudden stop on Friday when a judge ruled that the prosecution improperly failed to share ammunition

apnews.com

 

[Cousin Dupree]

 

[Cousin Dupree]

 

[Cousin Dupree]

 

[Cousin Dupree]

I'm watching "Gettysburg". One of my favorite films. I'm watching the commentary on scenes that were shot by various members of the crew. One says that in a certain battle scene, one of the ones for Little Roundtop, the cameras had to have a shield placed in front of it, because the blanks they were using could spew particles that could kill a cameraman.

I have no idea what the difference in charge load was between the two films, but it really made me think.