‘Rust’ Armorer’s Attorney-Client Texts Mistakenly Given to Key Witness
19.01.2024 - 23:19
/ variety.com
Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The “Rust” case has been a bumpy ride for prosecutors, as they have faced repeated setbacks over a series of blunders. As a special prosecutor revived charges against Alec Baldwin on Friday, obtaining a grand jury indictment in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, yet another problem emerged in a related case. Baldwin’s co-defendant, armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, sought on Friday to have her case thrown out, citing the prosecutor’s mishandling of attorney-client communications.
The prosecutor, Kari Morrissey, inadvertently turned over hundreds of text messages between Gutierrez Reed and her lawyer to a key witness last July. Gutierrez Reed is set to go on trial next month for involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering in Santa Fe, N.M. She mistakenly loaded a live bullet into Baldwin’s gun, which then fired, killing Hutchins and wounding the film’s director, Joel Souza.
Gutierrez Reed could face up to three years in prison if convicted. Her attorney, Jason Bowles, stated in the motion that the special prosecutor had engaged in “outrageous” misconduct by disclosing the attorney-client texts to Seth Kenney, the weapons expert who supplied guns and dummy ammunition to the production. As part of his defense at trial, Bowles plans to argue that Kenney was responsible for mixing a handful of live rounds in with hundreds of dummies.
The attorney-client text messages included discussion of that strategy, which Bowles argued gave Kenney a road map to the defense. Bowles argued that detectives never seriously investigated Kenney. According to the defense filing, Kenney has been in touch with prosecutors and the lead detective throughout the investigation, and attempted to
.
The website popstar.one is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can
send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.