'Rust' Special Prosecutor Explains Why She Quit Alec Baldwin's Trial Ahead Of Dismissal

"Rust" special prosecutor Erlinda Johnson resigned on Friday hours before Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case against Alec Baldwin with prejudice.

Baldwin was facing an involuntary manslaughter charge in connection with the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. However, the case against him was dropped on the third day of the trial when the Judge ruled that the prosecution and law enforcement officials buried evidence that could have been favorable to the actor, violating Brady law.

On Friday, special prosecutor Erlinda Johnson quit the case hours before Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer decided to dismiss the trial with prejudice, which means that Alec Baldwin can no longer face criminal charges for the death of Halyna Hutchins. She spoke with Chris Cuomo on NewsNation about why she resigned from the case on Friday night, only a few short hours after the case against Baldwin was dropped.

"We have an obligation as prosecutors, we have an obligation not only to the people, but to the defendant and our obligation is to make sure that all the evidence is turned over," she explained. "We don't get to decide what the defense is going to be. Our job is to ensure transparency and to ensure that the defendant has everything that the prosecution has gathered. What they do with it, that's up to them.”

She went on to say that she has "ethical obligations and personally, I have moral obligations."

“My ethical obligation and my moral obligations really are not that different," Erlinda Johnson continued. "And so when I see that something isn't right, and when I see that the law isn't followed, I don't care who you are, where you are, you make the right decision. And for me, the right decision was to walk up to the judge and ask to be allowed to withdraw before that circus of a hearing got underway."

She went on to tell Chris Cuomo that she "learned about this evidence when the public learned about it yesterday, late afternoon." She also said that she was "not involved in the Hannah Gutierrez case at all" and "was not aware that this individual had taken this ammunition to the sheriff's department and provided it to the officers."

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is currently serving 18 months behind bars after she was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year, but it is possible that her conviction could be overturned based on this new evidence.

When asked why she resigned from the case, Johnson said that it depended on her "evaluation of the evidence that I was privy to," and admitted that Baldwin did "engage in some horseplay with this gun" citing clips shown from the "Rust" set. She also mentioned an interview by investigators in which one of the crew members claimed he "allowed Mr. Baldwin to use him kind of as a target to shoot blanks at him."

"You don't use another person as a target, as a human target, so that could potentially be reckless," she said. "And so, you know, he wasn't charged with intentional homicide. There's no question for me, there's no question Mr. Baldwin did not intend to do this. But the question is, was there wanton and recklessness and so that's why I did believe in the case. I had no idea that this other evidence had not been turned over."

Erlinda Johnson also told NBC News that she "believed that the right decision would have been a dismissal" given the circumstances. She said that she also believed there was "some reckless behavior on the set."

“I don’t think it was intentional," she added of the lead prosecutor and police's decision to file the new evidence separately from the rest of the "Rust" evidence. "I really do not believe that. I think it was just something that — it wasn’t turned over, and it should have been.”

She also told Peoplemagazine that "Prosecutors have high ethical obligations, and when a prosecutor learns of evidence that could be material to the defense was not disclosed, the right thing to do would be to dismiss a case."

"When that was not done, my ethical obligations compelled me to withdraw," she added.