Prosecutor Kari Morrissey offered Hannah Gutierrez-Reed a plea deal.
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In a letter addressed to the defendant's lawyer, she proposes a “more favorable” outcome to the trial of the gunsmith from the film Rust, whose responsibility for the shooting that killed Western photography director Halyna Hutchins is being questioned . The gunsmith faces three years in prison if found guilty of “manslaughter” and “tampering with evidence.”
What the prosecutor wants to know is who supplied the fatal bullet that loaded the pistol held by Alec Baldwin. However, since the affair began on October 21, 2021, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed has claimed to know nothing.
The prosecutor doubts it. “I am confident that she has some idea of how the live ammunition arrived on set,” she wrote to the defendant’s attorney, Master Jason Bowles, on September 28, Variety reports.
To get the gunsmith to talk, the prosecutor offered her a deal. Either she speaks out and “that would go a long way toward a resolution favorable to her,” or she persists in her silence and the prosecutor would “file additional charges,” a charge she has discussed with the attorney.
Master Bowles viewed this deal as blackmail and refused, citing “his client’s right not to incriminate herself.” Therefore, the District Attorney's Office took action and on November 16, 2023, charged Hannah Gutierrez-Reed with carrying a firearm in a place where alcohol was sold, which is a fourth-degree felony under U.S. law. Facts back to October 1, 2021, before the dramatic accident on the set of Rust. Hannah Gutierrez-Reed allegedly brought a gun into a seedy bar in Santa Fe.
The gunsmith's lawyer intends to deny this allegation. He assumes that the prosecutor is trying to put pressure on her client. “This allegation was intended solely to pressure Ms. Gutierrez-Reed to waive her Fifth Amendment right (to provide information she did not have) or face criminal charges for completely unrelated actions,” he pleaded .
Master Bowles also disputed the prosecutor's right to connect the two cases. Because of her special status, prosecutor Kari Morrissey is not allowed to “file charges unrelated to the shooting.”
Kari Morrissey's status is that of a private judge. She was appointed in March following the rejection of Attorney General Mary Carmack-Altwies and Special Prosecutor Andrea Reeb, who were criticized for their handling of the case.
Despite everything, filming continued and the film was completed in May 2023. The first images of Rust were revealed on Deadline in early January. No release date has been set.