April 09--An appeals court has ordered additional court hearings for a man convicted in the beating death of a toddler in DuPage County more than a decade ago.
The Second District Appellate Court in an opinion released March 28 ordered the hearings in the case of Randy Liebich, who is serving a 65-year sentence for the 2002 beating death of 2-year-old Steven Quinn, the son of Liebich's girlfriend.
Liebich, 36, deserves an evidentiary hearing on his continued claims that he did not cause the injuries that led to Steven's death in February 2002, the appellate court said. Liebich's trial attorney failed to adequately investigate alternate scientific explanations that could have accounted for the boy's death, the appeals court said in its ruling.
"Not doing so was patently unreasonable and we have no difficulty in concluding (again, accepting defendant's allegations) that it undermines our confidence in the outcome of the trial," Appellate Justice Donald Hudson wrote on behalf of the three-judge panel that heard Liebich's case.
DuPage County prosecutors are aware of the ruling and are considering options, First Assistant State's Attorney Joe Ruggiero said Friday. Prosecutors can accept the ruling and conduct the hearing, or they can ask the appellate court to reconsider or seek appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court, he said.
The child's mother said Steven appeared listless when she returned from her job on Feb. 8, 2002, to the Willowbrook apartment she and Liebich shared with her toddler and the couple's newborn daughter. Liebich had been watching the children that day.
The boy was brought to a hospital and died several days later of what authorities say was head and abdominal trauma. In his postconviction appeals, Liebich has contended that the boy's brain injuries resulted from abdominal trauma that took place days before Steven was brought to the hospital, and at a time when Liebich says he could not have inflicted them.
Following a bench trial, Liebich was found guilty of the child's murder in 2004. In another postconviction appeal in 2013, Liebich testified that he had never struck the boy.
Clifford Ward is a freelance reporter.
