Miguel Roman, 52, is a free man after serving a 20-year sentence in the death of his girlfriend in 1988.
Roman's family and friends cheered Thursday as Judge David Gold dropped the charges.
Roman was convicted of killing Carmen Lopez, 17, in 1988, and sentenced to 60 years in prison, but DNA tests showed he could not have been the killer.
In December, the same judge who heard his case Thursday granted Roman a new trail and ordered that he be released from prison.
Earlier that month, police arrested another man, Pedro Miranda, 51, after the DNA tests linked him to the deaths of three Hartford teens - Lopez, Rosa Valentin, 16, and Mayra Cruz, 13.
Miranda was convicted in the May 29, 1998, sexual assault of a 24-year-old woman in West Hartford and was required to register on the State of Connecticut Sex Offender Registry.
Prosecutors said they have no evidence that ties Roman to Lopez's death.
- Rosa Valentin, 16, was last seen alive in Miranda’s car on July 26, 1986. Her body has never been found and she is presumed dead, according to the state Division of Criminal Justice.
- Mayra Cruz, 13, was reported missing when she did not return home from school in Hartford on Oct. 8, 1987. Her body was found in a wooded area in East Windsor on Nov. 8, 1987.
- Carmen Lopez’s relatives last heard from her on Jan. 2, 1988. She was found strangled on Jan. 5, 1988, in an apartment on Nelton Court in
