Top-level Orange County prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh was fired Wednesday from the District Attorney’s Office after an internal investigation into withholding evidence in a murder case.

District Attorney Todd Spitzer said the withheld evidence forced him in August to request a new murder trial for a man convicted in 2010 of mutilating his victim in Sunset Beach and burning the body. Paul Gentile Smith had been serving a life term in prison without the possibility of parole for the 1988 slaying of his marijuana dealer, Robert Haugen.

Orange County sheriff’s deputies and prosecutors allegedly violated Smith’s constitutional rights by placing him in a jail cell where he was targeted by three jailhouse informants and then telling defense attorneys about only one.

“I immediately hired an independent law firm to investigate whether there was a failure by the prosecutor to properly turn over discovery and whether the prosecutor was truthful in all subsequent and related inquiries by the United States Department of Justice,” Spitzer said in a prepared statement.

The report was completed Tuesday, Feb. 8, resulting in Baytieh’s termination, Spitzer said.

His statement did not mention Baytieh by name, but was made in response to an inquiry by the Orange County Register into Baytieh’s employment status.

“I made it unequivocally clear when I ran for Orange County District Attorney that I would not tolerate the ‘win at all costs’ mentality of the prior administration,” Spitzer said. “My prosecutors will not violate the Constitution and the rights of defendants in order to get convictions.”

Baytieh did not return telephone messages seeking comment. Baytieh, who is running for Superior Court judge in the June 7 election, was once labeled by Spitzer as the “North Star” of the District Attorney’s Office for his ethics.

Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders, Smith’s attorney, accused prosecutors of being involved in other instances of withheld evidence.

“In the near future we will be detailing how not only was critical evidence concealed from Mr. Smith for more than a decade but how members of the prosecution team conspired to conceal this evidence from dozens of other defendants who were entitled to learn about it — all so they could ensure that our client die in prison without ever knowing what happened,” Sanders said.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.