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Guilty Pleasures

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed
AP
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed

By Associated Press

Movie armorer seeks dismissal of her conviction or new trial in fatal shooting by Alec Baldwin

SANTA FE, N.M. | A movie armorer has asked a judge to dismiss her involuntary manslaughter conviction or convene a new trial in the shooting death of a cinematographer by actor Alec Baldwin, alleging suppression of evidence and misconduct by the prosecution.

In a court filing Tuesday, defense counsel for armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed argued her case should be reconsidered because prosecutors failed to share evidence that might have been exculpatory.

Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer last week brought Baldwin’s trial to a sudden and stunning end based on misconduct of police and prosecutors over the withholding of evidence from the defense in the 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film “Rust.”

“This court stated on July 12 that the integrity of the judicial system demanded that the court dismiss Mr. Baldwin’s case with prejudice,” said defense attorney Jason Bowles in the new court filing. “How can it be any different with Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s case, with this proven litany of serious discovery abuses?”

Kari Morrissey — lead prosecutor in both the Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed cases — said her written response would be filed in court next week, declining further comment.

The case-ending evidence at Baldwin’s trial was ammunition that was brought into the sheriff’s office in March by a man who said it could be related to Hutchins’ killing. Prosecutors said they deemed the ammo unrelated and unimportant, while Baldwin’s lawyers alleged they “buried” it and filed a motion to dismiss the case.

Gutierrez-Reed was convicted by a jury in March in a trial overseen by Judge Marlowe Sommer, who later assigned the maximum 18-month penalty. Gutierrez-Reed already has an appeal pending in a higher court on the involuntary manslaughter conviction.

Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of “Rust,” where it was expressly prohibited, and for failing to follow basic gun safety protocols.

She was acquitted at trial of allegations she tampered with evidence in the “Rust” investigation. She also has pleaded not guilty to a separate felony charge that she allegedly carried a gun into a bar in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where firearms are prohibited.

Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer for “Rust,” was pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal on a movie set outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.

The last cards have been dealt as the iconic Mirage closes its doors on the

Las Vegas Strip

LAS VEGAS | A final blast from The Mirage’s signature volcano marked the passage Wednesday of an aging Las Vegas resort that wowed crowds when it opened in 1989 and went on to revolutionize the casino resort industry and reshape Las Vegas as a tourist destination.

“What would The Mirage be without one last volcano eruption?” asked Joe Lupo, property president of The Mirage, as he ended a closing ceremony that drew hundreds of onlookers, including many of the 127 employees who’ve been at the 3,044-room resort from the beginning.

“It’s sad to see it go,” Jessica Hock, a Las Vegas resident who said her mother worked at The Mirage when it first opened, told the Las Vegas Sun during a Sunday night visit ahead of Wednesday’s ceremony. She said she’d miss many things about the resort, including its lush tropical forest beneath the domed glass atrium and a faint piña colada scent in the air.

Jim Allen, head of the property’s new owner, Florida-based Hard Rock International and Seminole Gaming, said Wednesday that work would “literally start tomorrow” to raze the volcano that rumbled and gushed nightly for nearly 35 years.

Lupo remains the property president following the change of hands. He said the new Hard Rock Las Vegas will open in 2027.

Plans call for a 600-room guitar-shaped hotel that renderings depict with guitar string-like beams spiking into the night sky from a purplish 660-foot (201-meter) tower. Allen promised more details in months to come.

Elaine Wynn, billionaire philanthropist and ex-wife of casino mogul Steve Wynn, who built the property, recalled that two performing tigers belonging to resort headliners Siegfried & Roy were the first “guests” through the door in November 1989. She said the first wave of people stopped, stared and applauded beneath the atrium. The illusionist duo and their tigers performed at The Mirage for 14 years, ending in 2003.

Costing $630 million, The Mirage was no simple gambling hall. It was the world’s largest hotel at the time. Guests were met by two bronze mermaid statues on the way to check in at a desk with a huge shark and fish tank behind it.

It had glitzy shops, celebrity chef restaurants and theater-sized showrooms featuring headliners like Johnny Mathis, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. Later, it became home to The Beatles-themed Cirque du Soleil show “Love,” which ended its 18-year run earlier this month.

“Instead of neon, a garden of dozens of rich Canary Island palm trees and a cool refreshing waterfall,” Steve Wynn recalled in a statement of recollections he released Monday through his Las Vegas attorney, Donald Campbell. Wynn titled it “An Homage to Lady Mirage.” He did not attend Wednesday’s ceremonies.

In his statement, Wynn noted The Mirage was the first new hotel in Las Vegas in several years and opened amid competition from casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the expansion of tribal gambling in California. He pointed to a decade-long resort building boom that followed, helping make Las Vegas one of the fastest-growing cities in America.

“To call The Mirage a catalyst would be an understatement,” Wynn wrote.

By 2000, more than 30,000 new hotel rooms were added as new Las Vegas Strip resorts went up: Excalibur, Luxor, Treasure Island, MGM Grand, New York-New York, Monte Carlo, Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, Venetian and Paris Las Vegas. Many were funded by Wall Street bonds. Wynn bought and demolished the 50-year-old Desert Inn to build and open his eponymous Wynn Resort in 2005.

Wynn, now 82 and living in Florida, paid a $10 million fine to Nevada gambling regulators last year and cut ties with the industry he helped shape to end a yearslong legal fight stemming from media reports in 2018 that he sexually harassed or assaulted several women at his hotels. He has always denied the allegations.

Bo Bernhard, director of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas International Gaming Institute, studies the emergence of what he terms the “fun economy” around the world. The Mirage, he said, set a standard for resort development in places like Singapore and Sydney.

“The Mirage changed the image Las Vegas projected to the rest of the world,” Bernhard said. It was “much more than just gambling” and “transformed everything,” he said.

The Seminole Tribe acquired the Hard Rock brand in 2007 from a MGM Resorts International deal worth nearly $1.1 billion. It became the first Native American operator in the lucrative and competitive Las Vegas Boulevard corridor. The tribe also operates seven casinos in Florida and owns the Hard Rock Hotel & Casinos business with locations in 76 countries. It purchased naming rights in 2016 to Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

An off-Strip former Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas was separately owned. A group that included billionaire Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, acquired that hotel-casino in 2018 for about $500 million. It was renovated and reopened in 2021 as Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.

“Las Vegas always reinvents itself,” said Michael Green, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas history professor whose father dealt blackjack for decades at casinos, including the long-ago-imploded Stardust and Showboat. “The Mirage is no longer state-of-the-art.”

Johnson sings anthem smoothly at All-Star Game a night after Andress’ panned rendition

ARLINGTON, Texas | Country music artist Cody Johnson performed the national anthem without a hitch before the All-Star Game in his home state of Texas, a night after a widely panned performance by Ingrid Andress that led to an apology and an admission that she was drunk.

Johnson walked toward the microphone between the mound and home plate at the home of the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night wearing a white cowboy hat and cream-colored blazer. The 37-year-old Texan removed the hat just before he started singing and raised it in his right hand several times along the way.

Johnson had already thrown out a ceremonial first pitch at Globe Life Field earlier this season before drawing the assignment for the anthem.

It ended up being under more scrutiny after the drama surrounding Andress, who said in her apology on Instagram that she planned to enter rehab. Andress sang the anthem before the Home Run Derby on Monday night.

Johnson is performing at the home of the Rangers in November.

Nice Horse, the Canadian duo of Katie Rox and Brandi Sidoryk, sang the anthem for that country before Johnson’s performance. The harmony-filled version went smoothly as well.

—From AP reports

Article Topic Follows: AP Briefs

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