The set armorer charged in relation to the shooting death on the set of “Rust” last year vehemently denied claims that she was hungover the day of the shooting, attorneys said in a filing Friday.
Prosecutors last week accused Hannah Gutierrez-Reed of being hungover on the day Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed a camerawoman on set during filming. Guttierez-Reed was responsible for ensuring that the firearm was safe to use.
Baldwin was initially charged with involuntary manslaughter for his role in the shooting, but those charges were dropped in April. Guttierez-Reed also faces involuntary manslaughter charges.
“Prosecutors have ‘doubled down’ and intentionally raised irrelevant inflammatory arguments in a further attempt to have the public unfairly prejudge this case against Hannah,” defense lawyer Jason Bowles said.
“No witness has ever said that Ms. Gutierrez-Reed was hungover on the day of the shooting,” he added, saying that the hangover claims “fatally tainted” the case.
“It is very interesting that these allegations now belatedly surface after a full 18 month prior investigation, in which they were never made. In fact, witnesses to date have all said Hannah was reliable, competent and not hung over on the job,” Bowles said.
Repeatedly in the filing, Bowles criticized New Mexico prosecutors for the handling of Guttierez-Reed’s case. He claimed that the prosecution refused to identify the witnesses to which they referred seeing Guttierez-Reed drunk, and that the prosecution wanted to play up negative stories about her in the media.
He also said that Guttierez-Reed has received death threats.
“This has turned into a modern day Salem witch trial,” he said.