Attorney for 'Rust' assistant director disputes his role in shooting
Nov. 2—Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said Tuesday his office is having "some difficulty" scheduling follow-up interviews with key witnesses who were on the set of the movie Rust when investigators say actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun with a live round in it, killing a renowned cinematographer.
The sheriff's office has identified Rust assistant director Dave Halls as the last person to handle the revolver before Baldwin fired it. Halls had grabbed the gun from a cart of weapons set up by the film's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, and gave it to the 63-year-old Hollywood star and producer, search warrant affidavits say.
Sheriff's office investigators wrote in the affidavits Halls had yelled "cold gun," meaning it had no live rounds.
Mendoza indicated Halls and Gutierrez-Reed were among the witnesses investigators would like to speak with again to clarify details of what had occurred before the deadly shooting.
His comments came a day after Lisa Torraco — the Albuquerque-based attorney for Halls — told a Fox News interviewer her client didn't hand the gun to Baldwin just before the Oct. 21 shooting, which killed the cinematographer, 42-year-old Halyna Hutchins, and injured director Joel Souza, 48.
"This idea my client grabbed the gun and handed it to Baldwin absolutely did not happen," Torraco told reporter Martha MacCallum during an interview Monday.
Torraco qualified her statement later in the interview, saying she wasn't on the set at the time and couldn't say "verbatim" what happened. But, she said, some accounts of the incident suggest someone else gave Baldwin the revolver.
She added it "doesn't matter" who handled the weapon before the shooting because Halls wasn't responsible for it.
"My client didn't load the firearm, didn't point the firearm at anyone and didn't pull the trigger," Torraco told MacCallum.
Torraco didn't respond to messages seeking comment for this story.
Asked Tuesday whether the identity of the person who handed the gun to Baldwin is now in dispute, Mendoza said "there have been conflicting statements" regarding "who handled the gun and who physically handed it to Mr. Baldwin."
"That's why we need these individuals to come back and reinterview and clarify some statements, so we can make sure we are 100 percent sure exactly who handled and who inspected the weapon before it was handed to Mr. Baldwin," Mendoza said.
First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said in an interview Tuesday she offered to help sheriff's office investigators obtain interviews with Halls and Gutierrez-Reed after she learned the pair had "lawyered up" because she has relationships with local attorneys.
She sent Torraco an email Tuesday asking if Halls is willing to be interviewed again, Carmack-Altwies added, but she hadn't yet heard back.
Gutierrez-Reed's attorneys, Jason Bowles and Robert J. Gorence, asked to review the armorer's original statement to detectives before agreeing to a follow-up interview because they weren't with her when she spoke with authorities on day of the incident, the district attorney said.
"We are releasing it to them," she added.
Gorence said Tuesday afternoon he had just received the audio recording of Gutierrez-Reed's half-hour interview and had not had a chance to listen to it.
"We are completely cooperative" with the investigation, Gorence said. But, he added, he and Bowles "obviously" weren't going to walk Gutierrez-Reed into a second interview without the opportunity to refresh her memory about her original statements.
Once they've had a chance to review the recording, he said, the attorneys will arrange another meeting between Gutierrez-Reed and sheriff's office investigators.
"If they didn't turn it over to us, she wasn't going to make another statement," Gorence said. He called the request "completely ordinary."
Gorence said he and Bowles weren't ready to comment on the details of who had handled the gun and when, but he said Bowles will provide interviews on several Wednesday morning television shows, which should be "revelatory."
Carmack-Altwies agreed the request to review a witness statement is "not abnormal" — but only after a lawyer becomes involved.
"It doesn't mean it's a bad thing," she said.
