Not even a plea deal. No evidence.

◼ Judge dismisses murder charge against Loleta woman - Thadeus Greenson/Times Standard

A Humboldt County judge has dismissed the murder charge facing a Loleta mother accused of killing her baby with methamphetamine-laced breast milk last year.

In a ruling filed Wednesday, Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Bruce Watson threw out the murder charge against Maggie Jean Wortman, 27, finding that no evidence was presented at the case's preliminary hearing to establish that Wortman knew she was endangering her infant son's life when she breastfed him after allegedly smoking methamphetamine.

Humboldt County Deputy District Attorney Ben McLaughlin said Wednesday he may choose to refile the murder charge and start the case over again from square one.

”We did not consider a murder count until after the testimony at the preliminary examination but thought there were sufficient facts to support such a charge,” McLaughlin said in an email to the Times-Standard. “Our investigation has continued since the preliminary examination, and we will meet as a group to consider whether or not to refile the murder charge. If we decide to refile, the preliminary examination will be considerably more involved.”

Wortman was arrested after her 6-week-old son, Michael Phillip Acosta III, was taken not breathing to a local hospital the morning of Nov. 21, 2010. Michael was pronounced dead that day, and a subsequent autopsy determined his cause of death to be “methamphetamine toxicity.”