From the second legislation enforcement arrived on the New Mexico set the place the Rust capturing occurred, how precisely the reside rounds bought there was a key focus of the investigation. The prosecution, for years, maintained that they probably got here from armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was convicted in March for involuntary manslaughter.
However when a so-called good Samaritan got here ahead with proof of a contradictory concept that led to the abrupt dismissal of the legal case towards Alec Baldwin, a well-recognized identify once more resurfaced: Seth Kenney, proprietor of a props and arms provider that furnished the Rust manufacturing with ammunition and weapons. Testimony from a criminal offense scene technician revealed that new ballistics proof emerged of rounds which can have come from the identical supply because the bullet that struck cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Baldwin’s attorneys mentioned this ammunition implicates Kenney within the introduction of reside rounds to the set and was intentionally hidden from them.
The nice Samaritan — later revealed to be retired Arizona police officer Troy Teske, a buddy of Gutierrez-Reed’s father, the longtime Hollywood armorer Thell Reed — introduced a pattern of the ammunition to the sheriff’s workplace. At the very least one in every of these rounds appeared to have a Starline brass casing that matched the reside bullet that killed Hutchins. That batch, Baldwin lawyer Alex Spiro mentioned, got here from Kenney and Reed and was utilized by castmembers on the Paramount+ Western 1883 for a so-called “cowboy coaching camp” run by the duo during which reside ammunition was used for capturing follow. Teske got here into possession of it by way of Reed, who saved a few of his arms on the former legislation enforcement officer’s house. Kenney additionally introduced a few of these rounds again to PDQ Arm and Prop in New Mexico.
Marissa Poppell, the crime scene technician, mentioned that she had been made conscious of the brand new proof’s relationship to the case by Teske. Spiro adopted up: “He informed you you had been duped by Seth Kenney, didn’t he?”
Talking with The Hollywood Reporter, Kenney says he suspects foul play. “Troy Teske had been recorded in November 2021 stating that he didn’t have any .45 Colt ammunition with nickel primers, a possible match to Rust,” he explains. “His years-late submission of ammunition to the sheriff’s workplace was solely a small portion of the 100 rounds he beforehand was recorded as saying he had in his possession, however now in 2024, embrace three rounds which have nickel primers, and will match the Rust ammunition.”
Kenney’s PDQ Arm and Prop provided prop weapons and ammunition to productions. His involvement within the leisure trade goes again at the very least a decade. He was a weapons guide on Man Down, a 2015 movie starring Shia LaBeouf. Throughout this time, he labored for The Hand Prop Room managing the Los Angeles prop rental home’s arsenal. He was sued in 2016 by his former employer in a since-dismissed swimsuit alleging he stole weapons, obtained firearms underneath its license for private use and tried to poach purchasers to start out his personal enterprise.
Kenney offered roughly 30 weapons of varied varieties and ammunition to the Rust manufacturing, largely .44-.40 and .38-.40 rounds, based on a 551-page investigative report launched by the Santa Fe Court docket Sheriff’s Workplace in November 2021. He mentioned he solely offered one field of .45 Lengthy Colt ammunition, which is the format used to load the revolver that killed Hutchins when it discharged. He’s adamantly maintained that the ammunition he offered wasn’t utilized by Gutierrez-Reed to load the gun Baldwin discharged, noting that it didn’t match an outline of the field the armorer drew from the day of the capturing offered to investigators by Rust props assistant Sarah Zachry.
Obtainable information present a view of Kenney’s actions and pondering following the lethal accident. Zachry referred to as Kenney within the quick aftermath, at which era he avowed the rounds weren’t his personal. Earlier than Hutchins was pronounced useless, he made a name to Teske, a decide and retired Arizona police officer who’s near Gutierrez-Reed’s father, explaining to him that she “had tousled,” based on a lawsuit from Gutierrez-Reed towards Kenney that’s been dismissed.
Within the following days, Kenney insisted to Zachry that he repeatedly checks rounds earlier than sending them out, together with rattle-testing dummies, and later informed investigators that he believed he knew the place the bullet in query could have originated — his personal ammo provider, Joe Swanson, who didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Reed had roughly 300 reside .45 Colt rounds and introduced some, with Kenney, for capturing follow on 1883, the Paramount+ Western, simply previous to manufacturing beginning for Rust, whereas leaving the remainder in Teske’s storage. After the coaching camp, Kenney took the ammunition that was left over with him to his New Mexico arms and prop home.
In a 2021 name to Cpl. Alexandria Hancock, the lead investigator within the case, Kenney expressed that the lethal spherical on the heart of the Rust case may’ve originated from this batch of ammunition. Certainly, Kenney acknowledged that each he and Swanson have been “nervous this was the case” and that “it was laborious to consider it got here from anyplace else,” based on the sheriff’s report.
Reed individually knowledgeable the sheriff’s workplace that Kenney saved the ammo container and the remainder of the reside rounds after the 1883 coaching was over. However legislation enforcement solely executed a search warrant on PDQ Arm & Prop 4 weeks after Hutchins’ demise, at which level the container was found with none rounds sporting Starline brass casings. “There isn’t a rationalization as to the place the rest of the reside rounds went or what Seth did with them,” acknowledged Gutierrez-Reed’s lawsuit. The sheriff’s report, which incorporates a catalog of proof that underwent testing, signifies that neither DNA nor fingerprint evaluation was carried out on the reside rounds discovered on set, basically making it not possible to hint their origin.
The disclosure of the rounds introduced by Teske, and whether or not they actually match these discovered on the Rust set, has been disputed. Particular prosecutor Kari Morrissey mentioned the ammunition within the possession of Teske and Kenney used for capturing follow in 1883 was dominated out because the sources of these discovered on the Rust set after the ex-police officer despatched Kenney an image of the rounds he was holding for Reed, which Morrissey examined. “Whenever you have a look at that {photograph}… you possibly can inform these usually are not much like the reside rounds that have been discovered on set of Rust,” Morrissey testified through the Baldwin trial. She mentioned she did her due diligence to examine these rounds, pointing to the seizure of ammunition from PDQ Arm and Props. “Not solely is it not a match whenever you have a look at it, it’s not a match whenever you ship it to the FBI, and also you ask them to conduct chemical testing,” the particular prosecutor defined.
The day Baldwin’s case was dismissed, Morrissey put Poppell on the stand to defend her choice to not flip over the proof to the protection. “They usually can see for themselves that it doesn’t match the reside ammunition from the set of Rust, appropriate?” she requested the crime technician. “And that’s apparent, simply whenever you have a look at it, is it not?” to which Poppell agreed.
However when Sommer examined the ammunition Teske introduced in open courtroom with the prosecution and protection surrounding her, a few of them appeared to resemble these discovered on set after the capturing.
Kenney was the primary to be referred to as to testify after the revelation. He confirmed that he gave a field of .45 Colt dummy rounds with Starline brass casings and nickel primers to Zachry, who launched it onto the set of Rust, although he adamantly maintained he wasn’t the supply of the reside ammunition.
“Simply days after the capturing demise, Hannah and Thell Reed accessed the prop truck and eliminated a trove of potential proof, together with a dozen-plus gun belts, earlier than the sheriff’s division gained and executed a search warrant,” Kenney tells THR. “Mr. Teske is a detailed buddy to the Reed household. It’s subsequently no shock that he could have come into possession of probably matching Rust ammunition from the set.”
It was later revealed that Poppell lied concerning the Teske-supplied ammunition not matching the rounds discovered on the Rust set in testimony from Hancock, who agreed with Baldwin’s lawyer that the crime scene technician’s assertion was “fully false.” Morrissey mentioned that she “didn’t understand that there have been rounds that regarded like that.”
Morrisey defined the primary time she realized that Teske had ammunition that regarded much like the rounds uncovered on the Rust set — all belonging to Reed — was in open courtroom the day the courtroom dismissed Baldwin’s case.
“It’s extremely suspect that Mr. Teske offered photographs of rounds in November 2021 and January 2024 of rounds which are fully dissimilar to the reside rounds discovered on the set of Rust, confirmed in writing in November 2021 that he was unable to find any rounds with [nickel] primers after which on March 6, 2024, he dropped off rounds much like these from Rust,” she wrote in a submitting opposing a brand new trial for Gutierrez-Reed.
In courtroom, Kenney questioned whether or not he was being made a scapegoat by Reed, Gutierrez-Reed’s father, and Teske, a longtime buddy of the veteran armorer.
He testified, “It appeared palpable they have been attempting to level the finger at me.”