'Rust' Shooting Case: Armorer's Lawyers Demand New Trial or Dismissal
- IndiaGlitz, [Wednesday,July 17 2024]
Seeking a fresh trial or dismissal of the case against her, lawyers for Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez filed an urgent request on Tuesday night in the Santa Fe First Judicial District Court of New Mexico. This follows the judge's dismissal of Alec Baldwin's case. Legal team of Gutierrez contends that their demand is justified by severe and ongoing discovery violations by the State.
March saw Gutierrez, the armorer on the Rust set, guilty of involuntary manslaughter following the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins. April saw her condemned to eighteen months in jail. She appealed her conviction in May; nevertheless, Tuesday's filing resulted from Baldwin's case being dismissed last week.
Unbelievably, last Friday, only three days into Baldwin's manslaughter trial, a New Mexico judge dropped his case. The defense's request to dismiss was approved after they claimed local law enforcement had concealed live ammunition linked to the investigation.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case citing the state's discovery breach and late publication of a supplemental report on the ammunition. She said these acts injected needless delay into the proceedings, bordered bad faith, and were highly prejudicial to the defendant. The matter was dismissed with prejudice, therefore excluding Baldwin from another trial on the same charge.
Gutierrez's lawyers underlined Baldwin's case in their file as proof of extreme misconduct by the authorities. They asked the court to give their demand for a fresh trial or discharge first priority and take this precedent into account.