Former U Of I Football Star Lovelace Hires Attorneys In Murder Case

A former Illinois prosecutor and University of Illinois football standout accused of suffocating his wife eight years ago has hired two attorneys and will appear with them during his approaching arraignment.

The case's special prosecutor, Ed Parkinson, told The Associated Press that Springfield attorneys James Elmore and Jeff Page told a judge Wednesday during a conference call they have taken on the case of Curtis Lovelace, a former assistant state's attorney in Adams County.

But Lovelace's arraignment was pushed back a day to Oct. 9 because Lovelace's lawyers had scheduling conflicts with the original date.
 
Messages left Friday with Elmore and Page were not immediately returned.
 
Lovelace, 45, a former Quincy school board member and all-Big Ten first team selection at center at Illinois in the late 1980s, was indicted last month in Adams County on a first-degree murder charge related to the Valentine's Day 2006 death of Cory Lovelace, 38, in the family's Quincy home.
 
Her death had remained an open case because an autopsy and coroner's jury at the time failed to pinpoint what killed of the mother of four.

Parkinson has said Curtis Lovelace had told authorities after his wife's death she had been ill.
 
But Quincy Police Chief Rob Copley said the case took a dramatic turn late last year when a new detective dusted off the file and sought opinions from two outside pathologists, each of whom concluded that Cory Lovelace had been suffocated.

Curtis Lovelace remains jailed in lieu of $5 million bond.