ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The weapons supervisor on the movie set the place Alec Baldwin shot and killed a cinematographer was consuming and smoking marijuana within the evenings through the filming of “Rust,” prosecutors are accusing, saying she was probably hungover when she loaded a stay bullet into the revolver that the actor used.
They leveled the accusations Friday in response to a movement filed final month by Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys that seeks to dismiss her involuntary manslaughter cost. The prosecutors accused her of getting a historical past of reckless conduct and argued that it will be within the public curiosity for her to “finally be held accountable.”
Jason Bowles, Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyer, mentioned Tuesday that the prosecution has mishandled the case.
“The case is so weak that they now have chosen to resort to character assassination claims about Hannah,” Bowles informed The Associated Press. “The prosecution has abandoned the idea of doing justice and getting to the actual truth apparently.”
A preliminary listening to for Gutierrez-Reed is scheduled in August. A decide is predicted to determine then if there’s possible trigger for Gutierrez-Reed’s cost to maneuver ahead.
In the response, the prosecutors additionally famous that they anticipated to determine inside the subsequent 60 days whether or not to recharge Baldwin, relying on the outcomes of an evaluation of the gun and its damaged sear. The objects had been despatched to the state’s impartial skilled for additional testing.
The involuntary manslaughter cost confronted by Baldwin, who additionally was a producer on the movie, was dismissed in April, with prosecutors citing new proof and the necessity for extra time to analyze.
Baldwin was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins throughout a rehearsal on the New Mexico movie set in October 2021 when it went off, killing her and wounding the movie’s director, Joel Souza.
Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys had argued of their movement that the prosecution was “tainted by improper political motives” and that Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies and the preliminary particular prosecutor she appointed, Andrea Reeb, “both used the tragic film set accident that resulted in the death of Halyna Hutchins as an opportunity to advance their personal interests.”
The protection attorneys contend that the everlasting harm accomplished to the gun by FBI testing earlier than the protection may look at it amounted to destruction of proof and a violation of the courtroom’s guidelines of discovery. They additionally argued that the “selective prosecution” of Gutierrez-Reed was a violation of the equal safety clause of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
New particular prosecutors who had been appointed after Reeb stepped down disputed these claims of their response, saying “nothing about this prosecution has or will be selective.”
The prosecutors additionally acknowledged the unanswered query of the place the stay rounds discovered on set got here from, saying they had been looking for out and that the investigation was ongoing. They additionally advised there was proof to help the speculation that Gutierrez-Reed herself might accountable and if that’s the case, extra costs might comply with.
They supplied no specifics within the submitting as to what that proof is perhaps.
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