Murder case dismissed in death of newlywed wife
- NEW: The accused man's father says he hopes "everyone can begin to heal" now
- NEW: A prosecutor says he is "extremely stunned" by the judge's decision
- Gabe Watson's 26-year-old wife, Tina, died in 2003 while the newlyweds were scuba diving
- He pleaded guilty in Australia to negligent manslaughter and was charged in Alabama
(CNN) -- An Alabama judge on Thursday abruptly dismissed the murder case against a man accused in the scuba-diving death of his newlywed wife off Australia's coast, a judicial official said.
The decision from Judge Tommy Nail came near the end of the second full week of David Gabriel "Gabe" Watson's trial in Birmingham.
According to Ken Glass, the judge's judicial assistant, Nail dismissed the case "after the state rested its case against Gabe Watson (and) the defense filed a motion for a judgment of acquittal due to a lack of evidence."
"I'm going to grant the defendant's motion for acquittal. This case is dismissed," Nail said, prompting an outburst of applause in the courtroom.
Afterward, a visibly emotional Watson put his face in his hands, then began hugging people around the room.
His 26-year-old wife, Tina, died October 22, 2003, while the pair were diving at a historic shipwreck off the Great Barrier Reef -- some 9,000 miles from Birmingham, where the two had wed 11 days earlier.
His father, David Watson, called the entire situation "terrible, it's tragic," while expressing satisfaction with the judge's decision.
"Everybody can begin to heal, get their lives back together," said David Watson, calling his son a "good kid."
Prosecutor Don Valeska said "this case is over forever," since there is no appeal possible.
"I strongly disagree with him," Valeska said of Nail. "I'm just extremely stunned, and I'm at a loss for words."
Returning to the United States after his wife's death, Watson remarried five years later. That same year, in 2008, he pleaded guilty in Australia to criminally negligent manslaughter and subsequently served 18 months in prison in that country.
He was then arrested in the United States in November 2010, after finishing his Australian prison sentence and then being held for a short time in immigration detention.
Days earlier, an Alabama grand jury indicted Watson on two counts -- murder for pecuniary gain and kidnapping where a felony occurred. Those charges were based on the premise that Watson hatched the plot to kill his wife while in Alabama.
In the opening arguments of Watson's U.S. trial earlier this month, Assistant Attorney General Andrew Arrington told jurors that Watson had changed his story on what happened several times. The prosecution also alleged that Watson had expected to gain about $ 210,000 in insurance and death benefits due to his new wife's deaths.
"This whole case ... is about murder and gain," Arrington said.
But defense attorney Brett Bloomston said Tina's father was the beneficiary on her workplace insurance policy. Watson filed for some expenses from a travel policy, but it was denied on a technicality, Bloomston said. His client did sue an insurance company when it denied him an accidental death benefit, the attorney said.
"Gabe never stood to gain anything from Tina's death; he lost," said Bloomston.
The defense argued that Tina Watson was wearing too much weight with her suit when she died, and that a strong current, her relative diving inexperience and a pattern of anxiety during dives were contributing factors.
After Nail's decision Thursday, Bloomston called the entire ordeal a "nightmare for Gabe and his family (and) a nightmare for Tina and her family."
"The judge determined that (the evidence) wasn't enough, and we're just very, very happy that Gabe was able to get some closure and start his life over," the lawyer told reporters outside the court.
CNN's Rick Martin contributed to this report.
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