Witness in ‘Rust’ Shooting Case Wants to Remain Anonymous, Fears Getting Blacklisted

A witness in the ongoing Rust shooting case does not want to be publicly identified due to fear of retaliation from Hollywood.

In court documents filed Friday and obtained by the Associated Press, special prosecutors who are investigating the 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins stated someone will testify that on the day Hutchins died, Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed gave them a small bag of narcotics when returning to set after speaking to authorities at the police station.

Out of fear of being blackballed “for coming forward with information about the defendant," the witness wants "to keep their identify from the public for as long as possible," the prosecutors said in the filing.

In October 2021, Alec Baldwin was rehearsing a scene with a gun and it went off, killing Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza. Prosecutors previously brought involuntary manslaughter charges against Baldwin; however, they were dropped in April, according to ABC News. Baldwin has maintained that he did not pull the trigger.

On June 9, prosecutors alleged that Gutierrez-Reed had been drinking and smoking marijuana in the evenings during the production of the film, and that she was "likely" hungover when she loaded the live round into gun that Alec Baldwin allegedly fired.

Last week, New Mexico special prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis charged Gutierrez-Reed with fourth-degree tampering with evidence, according to court documents obtained by CBS News.

The documents reportedly allege that Gutierrez-Reed transferred narcotics "to another person with the intent to prevent the apprehension, prosecutions or conviction of herself."

The special prosecutors assigned to the case had already charged Gutierrez-Reed with involuntary manslaughter, and filed an amended complaint adding the new charge.

Gutierrez-Reed's lawyer challenged the new filing and told AP, "A secret witness appears 20 months later? With no actual corroboration or evidence? And the state won’t identify the person? This is a throwback to the secret, star chamber prosecutions in England in the 15th century that were abolished."

He called it "retaliatory and vindictive" and a form of "character assassination" against his client.