A thief involved with the stolen ruby slippers Judy Garland wore in “The Wizard of Oz” has died before going to trial.

Jerry Hal Saliterman, aged 77, residing in Crystal, Minnesota, was scheduled to enter a guilty plea in January. However, his hearing was postponed indefinitely due to severe health issues. These ailments include lung damage, sepsis, and Parkinson’s disease.

Saliterman died Sunday, federal prosecutor Matthew Greenley notified the court in a one-page motion Monday that did not give extra detail.

Judge Patrick Schiltz granted the request to drop the charges of theft of a major artwork and witness tampering.

At the time charges were brought against Saliterman for involvement in the theft of the iconic sequined red slippers from the Judy Garland Museum in her hometown of Grand Rapids in 2005, he was already wheelchair-bound and dependent on oxygen as of March last year.

Terry Jon Martin, now 78, from Grand Rapids, who confessed in 2023 to breaking into the museum with a hammer to steal the slippers, believed them to be adorned with genuine rubies.

When he realized they were fake, he passed the slippers to Saltiman, who helped keep them hidden for nearly 13 years until the FBI recovered them in 2018. They fetched a record for movie memorabilia of $32.5 million in December, according to Heritage Auctions.

Defense attorney John Brink confirmed Monday that his client had died but declined to give details.

With Post wires