Man jailed 16 years in toddler's death released after posting bail
Randy Liebich got his first taste of freedom since 2002 Monday after posting his $30,000 bail. In 2002 he was accused of murdering 2-year-old Steven Quinn Jr. in Willowbrook.
Liebich was released from prison at 7:12 p.m. Monday.
DuPage County Judge John Kinsella on Monday set bail at $300,000 for Liebich, who has been serving a 65-year sentence in connection with the toddler's death.
The bail was set less than two weeks after Kinsella ruled that Liebich was denied a fair trial in 2004 when he was convicted of first-degree murder for killing Steven, who was the son of Liebich's girlfriend at the time. When Liebich was initially charged in 2002, Judge Ann B. Jorgensen ordered him held without bail.
The $30,000 Liebich posted represents 10 percent of the full bail amount.
Kinsella said he reviewed Liebich's "largely unremarkable" criminal history before his conviction and his conduct reports during the time he has been incarcerated and weighed them against the fact that Liebich remains accused of first-degree murder.
"I believe the bond amount is appropriate, given the circumstances," Kinsella said. "This case is somewhat unique."
Kinsella ordered Liebich to wear a GPS monitoring device and limit his movement to his home, employment, religious services, meetings with his lawyers and court appearances.
Tara Thompson, of the University of Chicago Law School's Exoneration Project, said Liebich has the support of his family, who have a place for him to live and a job waiting for him at his brother's automotive repair business.
Prosecutors announced Monday that they have filed an appeal to Kinsella's Sept. 14 ruling, which could take at least a year and likely longer to resolve.
The hearing, which granted Liebich the right to a new trial, actually was ordered by the Second District Appellate Court to determine whether Liebich, 39, should be granted a new trial on the basis of "ineffective assistance of counsel." Kinsella made no predictions Monday as to how the appellate court would rule on the case being sent back to it.
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.
In his Sept. 14 ruling, 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 the 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 where he died three days later.
Prosecutors said the woman, who now lives out of state, "couldn't stomach" being in court for the hearing or for Kinsella's bond ruling. Her mother, however, was in attendance and repeated, in a hushed voice, "Oh. Wow. Oh. Wow" as Kinsella announced Liebich's bond amount.
Liebich is next due in court on March 15 for an update on the status of the state's appeal.