When Troy Teske entered the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office in March to hand over several rounds, he had low expectations.
However, he would subsequently play a crucial supporting role in the Alec Baldwin trial, serving as the “Good Samaritan” whose testimony would prove the case’s weaknesses.
It exploded. In his first interview regarding the case, Teske, a former police officer from Bullhead City, Arizona, says, “It was hilarious to watch.”
On the set of “Rust,” Baldwin was charged with carelessly shooting cameraman Halyna Hutchins. When Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer inspected Teske’s bullets in public during Baldwin’s manslaughter trial in July, she discovered three of them matched the live bullets discovered on the set, including the lethal round.
READ MORE: Rust Director Joel Souza Says The Deadly Shooting Of Alec Baldwin ‘Ruined’ Him
Since the defense had not been given access to the bullets, they were legally relevant. The judge decided that Baldwin had not been given a fair trial and dismissed the case based on it. However, they also provided a tantalizing hint. How live gunshots ended up on a movie set has been the main question ever since Hutchins’ passing.
Seth Kenney, the prop supplier who gave “Rust” weapons, dummies, and blank ammunition, is thought to have supplied the bullets, according to the Teske rounds. In addition to Kenney’s denial of guilt, the investigators and prosecutors rejected that idea in favor of armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, who is currently serving an 18-month sentence for her role in Hutchins’ death.
The renowned film armorer Thell Reed, the father of Gutierrez Reed, is friends with Teske. Reed would leave his ammunition at Teske’s residence for safekeeping when they went shooting together. Reed and Kenney brought some of those bullets to Taylor Sheridan’s ranch in Texas two months prior to the “Rust” event. There, they used them to conduct a livefire training camp for the actors in the “Yellowstone” prequel “1883.” After that, Kenney returned to Albuquerque with the rest.
READ MORE: Alec Baldwin ‘Rust’ Trial: Other Actor Had Live Ammo Too…Subtle Bullet Differences
Reed thought they moved on to the “Rust” set, where they mixed with dummies that looked alike. Detectives discovered after the incident that Kenney’s remaining live ammunition did not match the “Rust” bullets, disproving that theory.
Teske anticipated that investigators would confiscate the other ammunition from the same batch. However, they never did.
According to him, “Thell and I went out and shot up a whole bunch of it.” “I’m down to about 19 rounds, or 18 — I’d better hang on to these and turn them in later,” I eventually thought.
He thought he would testify for the defense, so he took them to Gutierrez Reed’s trial in March. However, the defense attorney instructed him to take the bullets to the sheriff’s office instead of calling him to the stand.
Teske claims that he too didn’t want to be involved in it. “That was highly suspicious.”
When Teske removed the ammunition from the hotel in Santa Fe, he saw that three of them had silver primers and Starline Brass casings, which he knew matched the live rounds on “Rust.” However, he assumed that nobody would be interested by then.
Teske states, “I was afraid they might destroy the evidence.” “I wanted confirmation that I turned it in when I did.”
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The case’s main detective, Alexandria Hancock, stated during Baldwin’s trial that she attempted to get in touch with Teske later but he did not answer her calls. In order to prevent Baldwin’s defense team from accessing his bullets, she logged them under a new file.
According to Teske, that account was untrue. He claims, “She never called me at all.” “It’s unbelievable that they assigned it a different case number.”
Regardless, Baldwin’s attorneys learned about the bullets—possibly from Gutierrez Reed’s attorney—and brought up the matter during the trial. When the judge requested to view the “Rust” bullets, prosecutors Kari Morrissey and a crime scene technician were shown to be mistaken in their claims.
Teske claims that everyone was lying about it.
Despite the fact that information was concealed during Gutierrez Reed’s trial as well, Teske says he is troubled that while Baldwin was free, she was not.
He claims that she is attempting to live while incarcerated. Many individuals are constantly attempting to harm her. They refer to her as “Hollywood.” She is disliked by them.
It’s still unclear exactly who is responsible for the bullets getting onto the set.
According to Teske, “all the evidence is gone — there’s no proving anything right now.” “I’ve stopped thinking about it and am essentially over it.”
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