'Rust' armorer faces new evidence-tampering charge

Jun. 22—Special prosecutors filed an amended criminal complaint Thursday in the case against Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, accusing her of giving narcotics to another person to avoid being charged with a drug crime.

Gutierrez-Reed, who now faces a count of tampering with evidence, previously was charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with a 2021 incident in which a revolver held by actor and producer Alec Baldwin discharged a bullet, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza on the set of the Western movie south of Santa Fe.

"Something is rotten in Denmark," Gutierrez-Reed's lawyer Jason Bowles wrote in an email Thursday. "It is shocking that after 20 months of investigation, the special prosecutor now throws in a completely new charge against Ms. Gutierrez Reed, with no prior notice or any witness statements, lab reports, or evidence to support it. ... This stinks to high heaven and is retaliatory and vindictive."

Bowles and co-counsel Todd Bullion filed a motion hours later Thursday asking the court to throw out the new charge. The document includes an email exchange in which a former investigator with the District Attorney's Office criticizes the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office for its handling of the initial investigation.

The exchange, which Bowles attached as an exhibit to the motion, also indicates the investigator — former New Mexico State Police Chief Robert Shilling — had signed a nondisclosure agreement with the District Attorney's Office, which the defense attorneys call "troubling on many fronts."

Shilling — whom the state had hired to work as an investigator on the Rust case — wrote in an email Morrissey had directed him to stop working on the case.

"Knowing full well the probability that this email may be subject to [the Inspection of Public Records Act], I am still compelled to respectfully offer the following," he wrote. "The conduct of the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office during and after their initial investigation is reprehensible and unprofessional to a degree I still have no words for. Not I or 200 more proficient investigators than I can/could clean up the mess delivered to your office in October 2022 (1 year since the initial incident ... inexcusable)."

Sheriff Adan Mendoza declined to comment Thursday, directing questions to special prosecutor Kari Morrissey.

According to the motion and the attached emails, Bowles was one of several people — including Chief Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Padgett Macias and special prosecutors Morrissey and Jason Lewis — who were copied on Shilling's email, which he had sent to District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies around 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Bowles got an email from Morrissey at 4:39 p.m. that day saying: "Rob's email to you was intended for Jason Lewis. It was an inadvertent disclosure. Please delete it."

"Apparently, the special prosecutor mis-believed that counsel for Ms. Gutierrez-Reed would have no obligation to follow up," Bowles wrote in the motion. "Counsel then emailed the special prosecutor back and asked why DA Carmack-Altwies was still involved in these matters. Special Prosecutor Morrissey then emailed that the contracts were with the district attorney's office, but that Morrissey decided who was hired and fired."

The motion continues, "Shilling messaged to counsel ... that he was under an NDA [nondisclosure agreement], apparently not to talk about either his being told to stop working, the reasons surrounding that, or anything about the case."

It "appears beyond a doubt now that the state is attempting to sweep exculpatory information 'under the rug.' But for the fortuitousness of this 'inadvertent' send, defense counsel would likely have never known about Shilling's information and extremely negative views on the investigation," the motion states.

Even more problematic, Bowles wrote, is the "apparent existence of an NDA" between Shilling and the state. Shilling was the author of the probable cause statement to support the charges against Gutierrez-Reed.

"The fact that he wrote the charges in the manner that he did, but now professes great concern with the quality of the investigation, is a very important and exculpatory matter," Bowles wrote, adding a nondisclosure agreement in this case is "completely inconsistent with the Inspection of Public Records Act."

"This is supposed to be a search for the truth, not a game of hide the ball to obtain a conviction," the motion says.

The motion asks the court to privately review all communications between Shilling, the District Attorney's Office and the special prosecutors, saying the defense has lost faith the state will voluntarily provide information that could exonerate Gutierrez-Reed.

"This request is also made because it appears that DA Carmack-Altwies is still having involvement in the case, despite this court's unequivocal prior order," the motion says. It appears to refer to a ruling by state District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, who found Carmack-Altwies could not prosecute the case alongside special prosecutors.

Morrissey wrote in a text message Carmack-Altwies is "not involved in the prosecution of this case in any way," and that the nondisclosure agreements were aimed at preventing "extrajudicial statements by members of the prosecution team to the press," not "genuine investigation" by the defense.

The prosecution has not and will not withhold any exculpatory information, Morrissey wrote.

"Mr. Bowles is free to interview Mr. Shilling anytime and I would be happy to set up the interview," she wrote.

The new charge against Gutierrez-Reed exposes her to a maximum possible sentence of three years in prison if she is convicted of both involuntary manslaughter, a fourth-degree felony, and tampering with evidence, also a fourth-degree felony. Each charge carries a sentence of 18 months.

She is accused of "[transferring] narcotics to another person with the intent to prevent the apprehension, prosecution or conviction of herself." Morrissey declined to provide more specifics Thursday about the drug Gutierrez-Reed is accused of transferring.

Bowles said in a phone interview he had "no idea" what substance prosecutors were referring to and that Morrissey told him she intended to file a protective order before she revealed it to him.

Morrissey said in a text message the protective order would be to prevent the abuse of a witness.

"Citizens who come forward with information relevant to criminal investigations should not be subject to harassment for fulfilling their civil duty," Morrissey wrote. "We will put the issue before the court and accept whatever ruling is handed down."

Bowles and Bullion recently filed a motion asking the court to dismiss the manslaughter charge against Gutierrez-Reed, citing prosecutorial misconduct. They supplemented that with the new motion Thursday asking the court to throw out the new charge as well.

Prosecutors dismissed an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin last month and said recently they'll decide within 60 days whether to refile against the actor and producer.