The weapons supervisor on the film set where Alec Baldwin shot and killed a cinematographer was drinking and smoking marijuana in the evenings during the filming of “Rust,” prosecutors are alleging, saying she was likely hungover when she loaded a live bullet into the revolver that the actor used, the Associated Press reports. They leveled the accusations in response to a motion filed by Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys that seeks to dismiss her involuntary manslaughter charge. The prosecutors accused her of having a history of reckless conduct and argued that it would be in the public interest for her to “finally be held accountable.” Jason Bowles, Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney, said 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 said. “The prosecution has abandoned the idea of doing justice and getting to the actual truth apparently.”
The involuntary manslaughter charge faced by Baldwin, who also was a producer on the film, was dismissed in April, with prosecutors citing new evidence and the need for more time to investigate. Baldwin was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal on the New Mexico film set in October 2021 when it went off, killing her and wounding the film’s director, Joel Souza. Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys argued that the prosecution was “tainted by improper political motives” and that Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies and the initial special 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.” Defense lawyers contend that the permanent damage done to the gun by FBI testing before the defense could examine it amounted to destruction of evidence and a violation of the court’s rules of discovery. They also argued that the “selective prosecution” of Gutierrez-Reed was a violation of the equal protection clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.