‘Rust’ Scandal: Footage Shows Cops Joking During Warehouse Search Months Before Alec Baldwin Case Collapsed Over Ammo Evidence Handling
Body camera video shows officials from the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office joking around with the 'Rust' prop firearm supplier during a warehouse search.
July 18 2024, Published 4:59 p.m. ET
Alec Baldwin's involuntary manslaughter case was stunningly dismissed because a New Mexico judge ruled the state mishandled evidence connected to the infamous accidental shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust.
RadarOnline.com exclusively obtained body camera video showing officials with the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office joking around with the movie's prop firearm supplier while collecting evidence from a warehouse that stored ammunition and guns for the ill-fated Western.
Crime scene technician Marissa Poppell joked with the lead detective on the 'Rust' investigation, Cpl. Alexandra Hancock, and the movie's firearm supplier Seth Kenney about needing a 'spa day' during the search.
Cracks in the prosecution's case began to surface during Baldwin's trial as the actor's lead defense attorney, Alex Spiro, grilled SFSO crime scene technician Marissa Poppell on the stand about the collection of evidence, exposing protocols that were not followed.
The team searched PDQ Arm and Prop LLC in Albuquerque November 30, 2021, more than a month after the October 21 shooting, as they worked to determine how actual bullets became mixed in with dummy rounds on the movie set. This crucial question was never definitively answered, but the case against Baldwin hinged on the assumption that the live rounds were brought to the set by Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was convicted in her own involuntary manslaughter case in March.
Poppell was joined by Cpl. Alexandra Hancock — the lead detective on the Rust investigation — and Cpl. Christopher Zook as they sorted through the cluttered warehouse owned by the movie's prop firearm supplier, Seth Kenney.
The videos we obtained show Kenney and the investigators cracking several jokes while the SFSO officials sorted through boxes of ammunition. Baldwin's defense team later questioned why Kenney was at the scene during the search when he was a "person of interest" as a potential source of the live rounds.
Officials sorted through the cluttered prop house for 'Rust' on November 30, 2021, but some protocols
During the second day of Baldwin's trial on Thursday, Poppell agreed when Spiro asked: "It was taking a long time to go through those boxes, wasn’t it?"
"You said 'this is taking a really long time, we really need a spa day,'" he added. The prosecution objected, and he rephrased his question: "Did you and Detective Hancock start joking around that it was going to take too long to search every box?"
Poppell replied that she did not recall this, but also said she didn't deny it was true.
The warehouse in Albuquerque, PDQ Arm and Prop LLC, is owned by the 'Rust' prop firearm supplier, Seth Kenney.
Sgt. Zook's body camera video captured Kenney in the doorway as Poppell and Hancock rummaged through a small room. The firearms supplier commented on how "thorough" they were being in their search. The group then giggled as the officials quipped about needing a "spa day," wanting to get "massages" and "our nails done."
Despite Kenney's assertion, Spiro argued the team was anything but "thorough."
He asked Poppell in court whether there were "times in this search when you pick up a box and you just shake the whole box", which she confirmed.
"But if you shook an entire box to see if it had a rattle in it, you wouldn’t be able to tell if it was all live rounds or a co-mingled crew, right?" Spiro asked, and Poppell agreed. She also affirmed his next question: "In fact, that’s the entire basis of the case of what you believe the armorer to have done, co-mingled live and dummies right?"
The defense argued that investigators "didn’t even search half of" the boxes of ammunition in the warehouse.
He went on: "Yet at the search being conducted to find the source of the lethal round, law enforcement is doing the very same thing that you’re complaining about the armorer doing on set, right?"
Poppell replied: "Yes."
The crime scene technician noted live ammunition was found in a bathroom of the warehouse, but Spiro also questioned whether the team "got every live round" at the site, alleging they "didn’t even search half of them."
Additionally, the defense pointed out the search warrant demanded officials collect surveillance video from the prop house, but Poppell admitted during her testimony that she collected no such footage.
Firearms and ammunition for the 'Rust' set were stored at Kenney's prop house.
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Ultimately, the case against Baldwin unraveled when the defense accused prosecutors of concealing evidence that pointed to Kenney as a potential source of the live ammunition.
On Friday, the third day of the trial came to an abrupt halt when Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer agreed with the defense and ruled to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning Baldwin cannot be retried for the same offense.
Judge Sommer said: "The state's willful withholding of this information was intentional and deliberate ... The state has repeatedly made representations to defense and to the court that they were compliant with all their discovery obligations. Despite their repeated representations they have continued to fail to disclose critical evidence to the defendant."
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