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Alec Baldwin’s defense will get a “free preview” and a “good argument” towards his involuntary manslaughter fees as prosecutors will take Hannah Gutierrez-Reed to court docket first.
Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer for the “Rust” film, faces the New Mexico prosecution in court docket starting Feb. 21 on fees that stem from the Oct. 21, 2021, fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the movie set. Baldwin is at present not included on the witness checklist for her trial.
Meanwhile, Baldwin’s authorized workforce has a standing listening to scheduled for Feb. 20. The look would be the first in his new case. Dates for the actor’s trial haven’t been set right now.
“The case has been botched for many reasons. One of which is that now Baldwin gets to go second,” former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani advised Fox News Digital. “So, one of two things will happen. Either Hannah Gutierrez-Reed will get convicted, and Baldwin will easily be able to point to the empty chair of this trial and say, ‘Well, listen, here’s the culpable person. The DA prosecuted her. They convicted her. And why are you coming after me? You know, here’s the person who’s responsible, right?'”
ALEC BALDWIN PLEADS NOT GUILTY IN ‘RUST’ INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER CASE
Alec Baldwin was indicted on fees of involuntary manslaughter for a second time on Jan. 19. (Santa Fe County Sheriffs Department)
“But even if she’s acquitted, Baldwin now gets a preview of all the evidence, the documents, the photographs, the videos that are admitted, all the witness testimony,” he continued. “He knows exactly what everyone’s going to say.”
Baldwin was indicted on fees of involuntary manslaughter on Jan. 19 in connection to the fatal shooting of Hutchins. Gutierrez-Reed, who can also be going through fees of involuntary manslaughter, labored on the movie because the armorer – which means she was accountable for correct dealing with of the firearms on set.
During a listening to Wednesday, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer denied Gutierrez-Reed’s request to sever the costs towards her: proof tampering and involuntary manslaughter. The transfer successfully permits the prosecution to carry up the armorer’s alleged drug use in the times main as much as the fatal shooting on the set of “Rust.”
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s trial in the “Rust” case is to start on Feb. 21 with jury choice. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong | Instagram)
Through court docket paperwork and pretrial hearings, the particular prosecutors have laid out their case towards Gutierrez-Reed. Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis plan to introduce textual content messages that reportedly point out the armorer was smoking marijuana in the evenings main as much as the fatal shooting. The prosecution has additionally obtained pictures that they stated show Gutierrez-Reed was the one who introduced the dwell ammunition to the set to start with.
“In addition to the defendant’s own text message exchanges and statements by Ms. Zachry, there are witnesses that Ms. Gutierrez was high on marijuana in her hotel room in Santa Fe while simultaneously in possession of boxes of ammunition for use on the set of the movie,” a court docket doc filed by the state on Jan. 31 reads.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed seems in court docket as she faces fees of proof tampering and involuntary manslaughter. (New Mexico Administrative Office of the Courts)
Gutierrez-Reed additionally reportedly admitted in an interview with detectives on Nov. 9, 2021, that she had smoked marijuana after finishing her work for the day.
The prosecution insists that “daily use of several mind-altering substances may have contributed to her inability to tell the difference” between dwell ammunition and the dummy rounds that have been presupposed to have been loaded into Baldwin’s gun that day. “A jury could reasonably conclude that a person who uses marijuana, alcohol, and cocaine in the evening and begins work at 6:00 am may still be impaired in the morning.”
Gutierrez-Reed has additionally been accused of handing off a bag of cocaine the identical day because the fatal shooting.
“The fact is that Ms. Gutierrez off-loaded a bag of cocaine to an acquaintance in order to prevent law enforcement from catching on that she was using drugs,” Morrissey wrote in the Jan. 31 submitting. “She handed off the baggie to an acquaintance within a couple hours of returning from her interview with [sheriffs’] detectives.”
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer for the “Rust” film, is seen in bodycam video answering a deputy’s questions after the fatal shooting on Oct. 21, 2021. (Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office)
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The armorer’s authorized workforce seemingly tried to exclude the proof associated to drug use “as it could “prejudice the jury,” Kate Mangels, partner at Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir LLP, told Fox News Digital.
“Even if there isn’t direct proof that Gutierrez was intoxicated or underneath the affect of medicine when making any choice that led to the loss of life of Hutchins, a jury could view her typically as a drug consumer and ignore that lack of proof,” she continued.
“The solely method this could impression Baldwin’s trial is that if it makes it extra seemingly that the prosecution can get a conviction on Gutierrez,” Mangels added. “Whether or not Gutierrez is convicted will seemingly impression Baldwin’s technique at trial of how a lot to make of Gutierrez’s function as an armorer in relation to Baldwin’s function as an actor/producer.”
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Alec Baldwin finished filming “Rust” this past May. (Reuters)
Baldwin has maintained that he did not pull the trigger of the gun on Oct. 21, 2021. He had been practicing a cross-draw that Hutchins was thinking of adding to the script at the time of the shooting.
“The set off wasn’t pulled. I didn’t pull the set off,” Baldwin told George Stephanopoulos in an interview shortly after the fatal shooting.
“No, no, no, no, I’d by no means level a gun at anybody and pull the set off. Never.”
WATCH: ‘RUST’ MOVIE VIDEO SHOWS ALEC BALDWIN PRACTICING CROSS DRAW BEFORE HALYNA HUTCHINS SHOOTING
However, the FBI conducted an accidental-discharge test and determined the gun used in the fatal shooting of Hutchins “could not be made to fireplace with out a pull of the set off,” ABC News reported.
Baldwin was originally charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter on Jan. 31, 2023, and the charges were later dropped in April.
At the time, the prosecution said “new information” had been revealed that require further investigation. In their motion to dismiss, the special prosecutors noted the inquiry and forensic analysis required could not be completed before the start of Baldwin’s scheduled preliminary hearing.
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