Investigator: Source of live rounds on 'Rust' movie set never determined

SANTA FE — A crime scene investigator acknowledged Thursday that she developed “no physical evidence” showing how live ammunition found its way onto the “Rust” set prior to the 2021 fatal shooting of the movie’s cinematographer.

The lead investigator later testified that she believed that the movie’s armorer had introduced the live rounds to the “Rust” set based on an examination of cellphone records.

Marissa Poppell, an investigator for the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office, made the acknowledgment in her second day of testimony in actor Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial.

Baldwin’s attorney, Alex Spiro, questioned Poppell much of the day Thursday, focusing on investigators’ efforts to find the source of a live round that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the “Rust” set on Oct. 21, 2021.

Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer of the movie, was rehearsing a scene on the set at Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe when the gun he was holding discharged, fatally shooting Hutchins, 42, and injuring director Joel Souza.

Prosecutors argued in opening statements that Baldwin never bothered to check the bullets in his gun despite the inexperience of the movie’s then-24-year-old armorer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed.

Gutierrez Reed, now 27, was found guilty this year by a Santa Fe jury of involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death. First Judicial District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer sentenced her to 18 months in prison in April.

Baldwin also faces a maximum sentence of 18 months if found guilty of the same charge.

The trial is expected to continue through next week before Marlowe Sommer.

Poppell testified that five live rounds were found on the set following Hutchins’ death. One of those rounds was loaded into a prop Colt .45 revolver that fired the fatal shot. A second live round was found in a bandolier Baldwin wore as part of his costume.

“I do not have any physical evidence to show where the live rounds came from,” Poppell said under questioning by Spiro.

Spiro grilled Poppell at length about her search of the Albuquerque office of PDQ Arm & Prop, which provided firearms and ammunition for the “Rust” production. Seth Kenney, the owner of PDQ Arm & Prop, is expected to testify later in the trial.

Investigators found Colt .45 live rounds in a bathroom at the PDQ office, but the rounds differed from the live rounds found on the “Rust” set, Poppell said.

Poppell acknowledged that she and two other investigators did not search every box they found in the cluttered PDQ office and, in some cases, only shook the boxes or cursorily examined their contents.

Nor did investigators seize security video from the business as authorized by the search warrant, she said.

Spiro also quizzed Poppell about a “good Samaritan” who brought a box of live ammunition into the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office earlier this year and claimed it was the source of the live ammunition brought onto the “Rust” set.

Poppell said the man, who identified himself as a retired police officer, claimed that the source of the live ammunition was PDQ Arm & Prop.

Poppell said she wrote a report about the man’s claim but did not enter the rounds into the “Rust” evidence. Spiro accused her of suppressing evidence in the “Rust” investigation.

Lead special prosecutor Kari Morrissey on redirect identified the “good Samaritan” as Troy Teske, who she said is a friend of Gutierrez Reed’s father, Thell Reed, a veteran film-industry armorer.

Poppell testified that the ammunition provided by Teske didn’t match the live rounds found on the “Rust” set.

Alexandria Hancock, the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office’s lead detective in the “Rust” investigation, later testified that she believed Gutierrez Reed introduced the live ammunition to the movie set.