The special prosecutor in Alec Baldwin’s dismissed involuntary manslaughter trial isn’t taking the case being tossed out last month over suppressed evidence quietly.
In a July 31 filing made public today, Kari Morrissey says Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer was determined to end Baldwin’s trial for the 2021 fatal shooting of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and flawed in her reasoning. Rehashing a lot of both Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s cases in her response to the incarcerated Rust armorer’s request for a new trial, Morrissey herself is also determined that Gutierrez-Reed doesn’t deserve a second kick at the legal can.
“Based on the Court’s off-record statement, it was apparent that the Court was intending to dismiss the case,” Morrissey says of that dramatic day in the Santa Fe Country courthouse just over two weeks ago that saw suppressed evidence being revealed and the prosecutor taking the stand herself. “Although the Court’s final order has not yet been filed, undersigned counsel contends that the Court misunderstood the testimony on July 12, 2024, and improperly dismissed the case against Mr. Baldwin,” Morrissey writes (read the Rust special prosecutor’s July 31 filing here).
Whether Morrissey is directing her ire at New Mexico judge Sommer, her former fellow special prosecutor Erlinda Johnson (who suddenly resigned mid-trial on July 12), an “unsatisfactory” paralegal she fired, Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyer Jason Bowles, or Baldwin and the armorer for not taking plea deals is hard to tell – it might be all of the above. What is clear is that Morrissey isn’t giving any quarter, and she thinks defense attorney Bowles is playing a fast one to get his client out of state prison or a retrial.
“If the Court were to decide that the dismissal of the case against Mr. Baldwin was proper there is one HUGE difference – in the Gutierrez case the State was not in possession of the Teske ammunition prior to trial (although arguably Mr. Bowles was), in the Baldwin case the State was in possession of the Teske ammunition,” the prosecution filing declares of the Colt .45 rounds that suddenly showed up from ex-Arizona cop Troy Teske, a close friend of Gutierrez-Reed’s legendary Hollywood gun coach father. “Mr. Bowles is comparing apples and oranges and trying to make a square peg fit in a round hole.”
Contacted by Deadline, Bowles had no comment today on Morrissey’s filing and claims. However, don’t be too surprised if he and other members of Gutierrez-Reed’s team have plenty to say in a filing of their own sooner rather than later.
Hutchins was fatally shot, and Rust director Joel Souza was injured on October 21, 2021 after the Colt .45 Baldwin was pointing at the director of photography fired off a live round during rehearsals at the Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe. Re-charged with involuntary manslaughter in January, exactly a year after he was charged the first time and after a plea deal fell apart, Baldwin entered a not guilty plea in the weeks afterward.
In April, Gutierrez-Reed was sentenced to 18 months in a New Mexico state prison after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the live round that ended up on the seemingly chaotic Rust set. Bowles has made a number of efforts since the sentencing to appeal his client’s conviction or get her bail while the appeal proceeded – all to no avail so far.
Alec Baldwin was also looking at up to 18 months in state prison if found guilty in his own trial.
The suppressed details of the Teske bullets and the dismissal of Baldwin’s case has opened up a possibility of Gutierrez-Reed could be set free in one way or another.
In the end, like with Baldwin, it will be up to Judge Sommer.
BTW – Morrissey’s filing says a final order from Judge Sommer hadn’t been issued yet, Actually, Judge Sommer did issue that final order on July 31, the same day Morrissey’s sprawling response in the Gutierrez-Reed case was first submitted. Lacking any ambiguity, Judge Sommer’s 21-page ruling said dismissing Baldwin’s case was her only option because anything else “would not cure the fundamental unfairness that the State’s misconduct, and its reverberations in trial, had infused into the proceeding.”
