ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Alec Baldwin may be a free man, but the dust from his “Rust” trial isn’t close to settling. 

“I believe there was reckless conduct on set, I believe that firearm was mishandled and that there was a wanton disregard for the safety of other people on set,” said Erlinda Johnson. 

But no matter how strongly special prosecutor Erlinda Johnson believed in the involuntary manslaughter case against Baldwin, it wasn’t enough for her to see it through. She shocked everyone watching the trial when she suddenly resigned Friday. 

“I felt ethically I made the right decision, and it wasn’t easy, but I had to do it,” said Johnson. 

Johnson says she felt something was off Thursday afternoon when the defense questioned a crime scene technician. That’s when we learned a man named Troy Teske turned in live ammo potentially connected to the “Rust” set. 

“At the moment I was asking folks at my table who is Troy Teske?” said Johnson. 

Teske turned in the ammo during Hannah Gutierrez Reed’s trial in February. A jury ultimately convicted the “Rust” armorer, and she’s serving an 18-month prison sentence.   

Teske told investigators that live ammo was part of a batch he believed was possibly given to Gutierrez Reed for the “Rust” movie. 

But investigators testified they, along with lead special prosecutor Kari Morrissey, put that ammo under a different case file and never turned it over to Baldwin’s team. 

On Friday morning, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer sent the jury home, and led a hourslong hearing to determine if the case should be dismissed.

“She opened the envelope and started requesting that the bullets be removed by categories. I noticed three of the rounds appeared similar to the live rounds found on the set of ‘Rust,’” Johnson said. 

Morrissey herself later testified during the hearing, saying she didn’t believe the Teske bullets were relevant. 

Johnson believes her former co-counsel but says that’s still a problem. 

“I think the overarching issue was disclosure and that making those bullets available to the defense and disclosing that report was really the issue,” said Johnson.  

Johnson says she lobbied Morrissey during lunch Friday to drop the charges against Baldwin, but that didn’t happen. 

That’s when Johnson resigned, and grabbed a few tissues before she quietly walked out of a back entrance to the Santa Fe County courthouse. 

“I think attorneys have an obligation, particularly prosecutors, if something isn’t right if something is violated, if a rule if a law is violated even if it’s the biggest case of your career, if it isn’t right you do the right thing,” said Johnson. 

Morrissey did do pretrial interviews with Teske for Gutierrez Reed’s case, not Baldwin’s.

Johnson says that’s why she had never heard of him before, and never knew about the ammo, since it was filed under a different case number. 

Morrissey had testified the reason Johnson resigned was because she didn’t agree with having a public hearing on the potential dismissal.

Johnson says that’s absolutely not true.