‘Rust’ Armorer Transferred Narcotics on Day of Shooting, Prosecutor Says

The unique armorer on the movie “Rust,” who was charged with involuntary manslaughter after a gun that was loaded with reside ammunition fired on the set and killed the cinematographer, will face a further cost of proof tampering associated to narcotics, a particular prosecutor within the case stated Thursday.

The new cost in opposition to the armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, “relates to the transfer of narcotics to another person” on Oct. 21, 2021, the day of the capturing, “with the intent to prevent criminal prosecution,” the prosecutor, Kari T. Morrissey, stated in an announcement. A lawyer for Ms. Gutierrez-Reed stated that she supposed to plead not responsible to each the proof tampering and the involuntary manslaughter prices.

The extra cost was introduced as tensions between prosecutors and the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office over the case started to spill into public view. An investigator who was faraway from the case after engaged on it for months for the district lawyer’s workplace sharply criticized the sheriff’s workplace earlier this week in an electronic mail to prosecutors.

“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,” the investigator, Robert Shilling, wrote within the electronic mail he despatched Tuesday. “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).”

Mr. Shilling declined to elaborate on the e-mail on Thursday, writing that he was sure by a nondisclosure settlement. Juan Rios, a spokesman for the sheriff’s workplace, declined to touch upon the criticism.

Mr. Shilling, an impartial contractor for the district lawyer’s workplace who has reported to Ms. Morrissey in current months, had made the criticism in a word addressing a call to take him off the case. The electronic mail was supplied to The New York Times on Thursday in response to a public information inquiry.

The case has confronted quite a few problems since a gun that the actor Alec Baldwin was training with on the set of “Rust” went off in 2021, killing the movie’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, and wounding its director, Joel Souza.

The unique prosecution group initially charged Mr. Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter. But that cost was later dropped after a brand new group reviewed proof suggesting that the gun he was training with had been modified. The particular prosecutor who initially helped lead the case had stepped down after her appointment was challenged on authorized grounds, and the district lawyer accountable for the case, Mary Carmack-Altwies, then stepped again and appointed Ms. Morrissey and Jason Lewis as new particular prosecutors.

The electronic mail from Mr. Shilling, the previous chief of the New Mexico State Police, was despatched to Ms. Morrissey, Ms. Carmack-Altwies, one other member of the district lawyer’s workplace and, improbably, to Jason Bowles, a lawyer for Ms. Gutierrez-Reed. (Mr. Shilling stated he had despatched the word to Mr. Bowles by mistake as a result of he has the identical first title as one in all his supervisors. He referred to as his electronic mail “unprofessional,” noting that “the victim deserved better.”)

On Thursday, Mr. Bowles stated in an announcement that the announcement of the extra cost after 20 months of investigation with no prior discover to his consumer was “shocking,” and famous that it got here on the heels of the state’s lead investigator “raising serious concerns about the investigation in an email.”

“This stinks to high heaven,” Mr. Bowles stated.

Of the narcotics allegation, Mr. Bowles stated within the assertion that he hadn’t seen any details or witnesses statements backing it.

Mr. Bowles referred to as the e-mail trade “beyond troubling” in courtroom papers he filed Thursday afternoon to bolster his request that the case be dismissed, saying that he was involved that he had initially been requested to erase the erroneously despatched electronic mail. He requested the decide to require that Mr. Shilling and the prosecutors produce all communications between them.

In her assertion, Ms. Morrissey defended the integrity of regulation enforcement’s investigation, writing, “We disagree with Mr. Shilling’s evaluation that any gaps in the investigation conducted by the Santa Fe County Sheriff could not be cured and we are diligently working with the sheriff’s department and our own investigative team to conduct any necessary follow-up that we, as special prosecutors, deem necessary.”

Amy Ruiz, a member of the clerk’s workplace on the First Judicial District Court of New Mexico, stated Thursday that an amended legal info doc had been filed within the courtroom in relation to Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s case this morning, however that the courtroom had a backlog in processing filings and the doc was not publicly accessible but.