A judge dismissed child pornography charges Thursday against one-time JonBenet Ramsey slaying suspect John Mark Karr after Sonoma County prosecutors said they didn't have enough evidence to take the case to trial.
Judge Rene Chouteau ordered Karr released immediately, bringing an end to his two-month odyssey in the U.S. criminal justice system after he was extradited from Thailand on suspicion of killing JonBenet.
Karr, 41, returned to Sonoma last month to face the five-year-old case after DNA evidence cleared him of killing the child beauty queen in her Boulder, Colo., home in 1996.
The Sonoma misdemeanor case fell apart almost as quickly, as investigators admitted losing vital computer evidence seized from Karr in April 2001 when he was working as a substitute teacher in Sonoma and Napa counties.
Defense lawyers tried unsuccessfully to get the charges dismissed and were seeking to have evidence barred from trial when prosecutors gave up.
"The impression that we've had all along is that the prosecution had every intention of getting this case to trial, regardless of the evidence," said defense lawyer Robert Amparan. "I am pleasantly surprised by them having done the right thing."
Prosecutors acknowledged that if Karr were convicted he would not have served any additional time in jail because he spent several months behind bars awaiting trial in 2001. They said they were seeking to have him register as a sex offender.
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