New trial for Willowbrook man convicted of killing toddler in 2002

A DuPage County judge has ordered a new trial for a Willowbrook man serving a 65-year prison sentence in connection with the 2002 death of a toddler he was baby-sitting.

Judge John Kinsella on Friday said Randy Liebich "was denied a fair trial" in 2004 when he was convicted of first-degree murder for killing his girlfriend's 2-year-old son, Steven Quinn Jr.

"This court is not finding the defendant not guilty," Kinsella said. "To the contrary, the court is finding there is evidence to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty."

But Kinsella said he believes that if testimony presented during a new hearing was included in the 2004 trial, "there's a reasonable likelihood that the defendant could have been acquitted."

The hearing, which started in late July, was ordered by the Second District Appellate Court to determine whether Liebich, now 39, should be granted a new trial on the basis of "ineffective assistance of counsel."

Liebich now is represented by the University of Chicago Law School's Exoneration Project.

In its 2016 ruling, the appellate court found former assistant public defenders Ricky Holman and John Casey failed to adequately investigate alternate scientific explanations that could have explained the boy's internal brain and abdominal wounds and, ultimately, his death.

On Friday, Kinsella said Holman and Casey "failed to consider and pursue legitimate and reasonably available medical evidence" that could have created a reasonable doubt.

During the hearing, several experts testified about their own beliefs on what caused Steven's death.

The former Cook County assistant medical examiner, Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan, who performed the autopsy, said Steven died of multiple injuries due to blunt-force trauma to his head and abdomen. A second expert said the boy's cause of death could only be "undetermined."

Others said they believed the boy died of pancreatitis and was not the victim of physical abuse.

Prosecutors argued that Liebich didn't deserve a new trial and was accurately convicted of beating his girlfriend's child while caring for him in the couple's Willowbrook apartment on Feb. 8, 2002.

Steven's mother came home from work and found him slumped against a wall. She and Liebich took the boy to the hospital. He died three days later.

Kinsella acknowledged his ruling "will bring stress and emotional trauma" to Steven's mother and other family members.

While he admitted he was reluctant to find Holman and Casey ineffective, Kinsella said, "I have done so because I believe justice requires the ruling."

Liebich will remain at the county jail until a Sept. 24 bond hearing.

Prosecutors declined to comment after Friday's ruling.