Attorneys for armorer, assistant director speak out after charges announced in ‘Rust’ shooting case
Written by ABC AUDIO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on January 19, 2023
As reported, New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies and special prosecutor Andrea Reeb announced charges Thursday in relation to the Rust shooting case.
Alec Baldwin and set armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed will each be charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter; first assistant director David Halls had already agreed to plead no contest for the charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon.
“If any one of these three people — Alec Baldwin, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed or David Halls — had done their job, [cinematographer] Halyna Hutchins would be alive today. It’s that simple,” Reeb said in a statement.
Baldwin insists Halls told him the gun was “cold,” or safe to handle.
An attorney for Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer on set, and one for Halls, to whom Gutierrez-Reed allegedly handed Baldwin’s Colt .45-style revolver from which the fatal shot discharged, have responded.
In an interview with ABC News, Halls’ lawyer Lisa Torraco said, “Mr. Halls and I are disappointed that [Carmack-Altwies] decided to bring a charge at all. We believe that criminally he should have been completely exonerated,” adding they are “happy with the resolution that she did propose.”
She continued, “When confronted with a potential felony, hearing up to 6 1/2 years in prison, or confronted with a petty misdemeanor, which was six months unsupervised probation, sometimes it gets to be the weighing of which choice is … the lesser evils.”
Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney Jason Bowles insists she was not called inside the church to inspect the weapons before they were brought out.
“Hannah is, and has always been, very emotional and sad about this tragic accident,” Bowles said. “But she did not commit involuntary manslaughter.” He also said “these charges are the result of a very flawed investigation” and that the “full truth” will lead to his client being “exonerated of wrongdoing by a jury.”
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