(Albuquerque) A New Mexico judge on Friday rejected the movie gunsmith’s attempt to challenge her conviction for involuntary manslaughter of the director of photography, shot by Alec Baldwin on the set of the film Rust.
After hearing brief arguments during a virtual hearing, Santa Fe-based Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said she would stay the course and that gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez-Reed would remain in custody until her sentencing in april.
Mme Gutierrez-Reed was convicted by a jury in early March for her participation in the deadly October 2021 shooting in suburban Santa Fe, New Mexico, during a rehearsal. Alec Baldwin was indicted by a grand jury in January and pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges. His trial is scheduled for July.
M’s defense lawyersme Gutierrez-Reed requested a new trial earlier this month and urged the judge to release their client from jail while deliberations continued. Attorney Jason Bowles told the judge Friday that his client committed no violations during the trial, was caring for her father and was seeing a mental health professional.
“She didn’t do anything wrong. She does not represent a danger or a risk of flight,” he said.
The judge responded, “Keep in mind there was a death that the jury determined was caused by her, so I’m not releasing her.” »
Involuntary manslaughter is punishable by up to 18 months in prison and a fine of $5,000. Mme Gutierrez-Reed is being held at the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Center.
In court filings, defense attorneys argued that jury instructions in this case could confuse jurors and lead to a non-unanimous verdict.
Similar objections to the jury instructions had been rejected at trial, but Mr. Bowles on Friday raised a new ruling from the New Mexico Supreme Court in an unrelated case that addressed situations where jurors have two specific acts or more to consider when deliberating a charge.
In the case of Mme Gutierrez-Reed, he explained that one of the acts was loading a live bullet into the weapon used on set and the other was the accusation that she did not carry out an adequate safety check of the ‘firearm. He failed to argue that jurors should have been given separate instructions for each act.
Mme Gutierrez-Reed could be sentenced as early as April 15 under the current schedule.
Alec Baldwin was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins when he fired, killing Mme Hutchins and hurting director Joel Souza.
Mr. Baldwin said he removed the hammer from the gun, but not the trigger. Testimony of an independent firearms expert at M’s trialme Gutierrez-Reed cast doubt on Alec Baldwin’s account that his gun went off without him pulling the trigger.
Prosecutors accused Mme Gutierrez-Reed for unintentionally bringing live ammunition to the set of Rust, where this was expressly prohibited. They also said she failed to follow basic gun safety protocols.
Last year, the deputy director and security coordinator of RustDave Halls, pleaded no contest to negligent handling of a firearm and served six months of unsupervised probation.
reference: www.lapresse.ca