Convicted ‘Rust’ Armorer Says Alec Baldwin Should Be In Jail

Alec Baldwin’s legal team is requesting that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed — the “Rust” armorer who was sentenced to 18 months in prison involuntary manslaughter — as a witness in the actor’s upcoming trial regarding the trial regarding the 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Prior to submitting the request, special prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey filed court documents which cited jailhouse phone calls in which Gutierrez-Reed said that Baldwin deserves to be in prison. The documents, which outlined prosecutors’ objection to Gutierrez-Reed’s request for a conditional discharge, did not contain transcripts of the calls, though they did provide summaries.

Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and she was found to have inadvertently placed live ammunition in one of the film set’s guns. Baldwin later pointed the weapon at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins before, according to the actor, the gun “went off,” killing Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.

Prosecutors cited the phone calls when arguing against Gutierrez-Reed’s request for a conditional discharge, which would have resulted in a sentence of probation rather than prison, stating that she has shown a “total failure to accept responsibility,” for the incident.

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In a number of separate conversations, the armorer referred to special prosecutor Morrissey as a “b**ch,” called members of the jury “a**holes,” and that she “wants them to put Alec Baldwin in jail.”

Jason Bowles, an attorney for Gutierrez-Reed, rejected the prosecution’s framing and referred to the summaries as cherry-picked snippets.  “It’s really unfair to characterize or cherry pick comments someone may or may not have made while they were upset and very recently incarcerated. But, many aspects of this prosecution have displayed no concern for fairness in favor of a win at all costs attitude,” Bowles told People Magazine.

Baldwin’s lawyers did not have the convicted armorer included on their most recent witness list, though she did invoke Fifth Amendment privileges during a May 14 pretrial interview. Prosecutors have asked Gutierrez-Reed to testify at Baldwin’s July trial and intend to grant her “use immunity,” meaning that her testimony cannot be used against her in her appeal of the conviction.

If Gutierrez-Reed doesn’t testify, Baldwin’s attorneys could then show clips of her prior police interviews. “In her interviews she’s very clear saying she should have checked [the gun] better,” legal expert Emily D. Baker told People Magazine.

In court papers filed last month, it was revealed that Baldwin’s legal team had attempted to work out a deal with Gutierrez-Reed. “Mr. Baldwin essentially stated that he would issue a public statement relating to the events leading up to the killing of Ms. Hutchins…stating that he (Mr. Baldwin) did not think Ms. Gutierrez did anything wrong and that he had no issues with her. In exchange, Mr. Baldwin asked that Ms. Gutierrez and her team not ‘slam’ him in the press as it relates to the statements that he made that he did not pull the trigger,” the document reads.

Baldwin, who is set to go on trial next month, has claimed that he did not pull the trigger of the prop gun he was holding.  A firearms expert has disputed Baldwin’s claims, stating that the trigger would have needed to be pulled in order for the gun to fire.

In October, a forensic report concluded that the trigger of the prop Colt .45 revolver had been pulled “sufficiently” enough to cause the gun to fire.

According to the firearms report, which was commissioned by the State of New Mexico: “Although Alec Baldwin repeatedly denies pulling the trigger, given the tests, findings and observations reported here, the trigger had to be pulled or depressed sufficiently to release the fully cocked or retracted hammer of the evidence revolver.”

If convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Baldwin faces up to 18 months in prison.

The trial is slated to begin on July 10.

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