He walked out of a local jail Wednesday afternoon a free man for the first time in three years. Once convicted of killing his mother, Kevin Kyne said he never lost faith he'd get out of prison. (Video via WFTS)
"I've been waiting for this moment for close to five years, so ... utter disbelief," Kyne told WFTS. "I'm ecstatic."
Police arrested Kyne in 2010 and a jury convicted him two years later for killing his mother, but a court of appeals granted him a retrial when it decided some testimony should never have been allowed in court. A second jury found him not guilty Tuesday.
During that second trial, Kyne's stepfather said he found the then-23-year-old choking Diane Kyne after an argument. Both Kevin Kyne and his stepfather have accused each other in the woman's murder.
The newly freed 27-year-old continued those accusations Wednesday.
"There's two people in the home — three people in the home, my mother being one of them that has died — and [of] the other two, I'm innocent. There's got to be a guilty party," Kyne told the Tampa Bay Times.
Kyne's grandmother took him home from jail.
"It's an exciting day for me to get him out in the open, but what he does with his life from now on is his choice," Phyllis Karakash told WFTS.
Kyne told a WFTS reporter the first thing he wanted to do as a free man was get a meal and spend time with family.
