By The Associated Press

WHEATON, Ill. (AP) — A suburban Chicago man granted a new trial after being sentenced to 65 years in prison for the beating death of his girlfriend’s 2½-year-old son is a free man after a prosecutor dropped charges against him.

Thirty-nine-year-old Randy Liebich of Willowbrook left a DuPage County courtroom Wednesday and said, “I’m feeling a million different emotions right now. I spent 17 years locked up for something I didn’t do. Now I’m going to leave here and begin rebuilding my life.”

Liebich was convicted in a 2004 bench trial of killing Steven Quinn two years earlier.

DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin announced Wednesday he didn’t have enough evidence to retry the case.

Liebich had been free on bond since his conviction was thrown out last fall because of ineffective counsel.