An Adams County grand jury indicts Lovelace of first-degree murder in the Feb. 14, 2006, death of his wife, Cory. Curtis Lovelace is alleged to have suffocated Cory Lovelace. He is arrested without incident around 12:15 p.m. on Vermont between Sixth and Seventh streets, near his law office at 608 Vermont. Bail is set at $5 million.
Lovelace makes his first appearance in Adams County Circuit Court. He represents himself at the brief hearing in front of Judge Scott Butler. Lovelace is wearing the jail jumpsuit issued to him by the Hancock County Jail. Neighboring Hancock County has agreed to house Lovelace since there is no segregated unit where he could be housed in the Adams County Jail.
Judge Bob Hardwick is ordered to hear the case after Lovelace asked that Butler be substituted.
Lovelace enters a plea of not guilty through his newly hired attorneys James Elmore and Jeff Page, both of whom practice in Springfield, Ill.
Through a Freedom of Information Act filed by the Herald-Whig, special prosecutor Ed Parkinson releases an eight-page transcript from an Adams County coroner’s inquest hearing form March 23, 2006. Lovelace told police he did not immediately call for emergency personnel or perform any type of life-saving measures on his wife the morning of her death.
Hardwick sets Lovelace’s trial for Jan. 26, 2015, the first of several dates.
The defense asks for its first new trial date and Hardwick moves it to March 23, 2015.
On the original trial date, defense asks for another delay. Hardwick agrees and moves trial to June, 29, 2015. Elmore tells The Herald-Whig Lovelace has “limited resources” for his defense.
Lovelace’s attorneys request another delay. Hardwick sets the trial for Sept. 21, 2015.
Lovelace’s defense team requests a change of venue, citing pretrial publicity.
Lovelace appears in Cass County Circuit Court, where Hardwick is the presiding judge, for a hearing on the change of venue motion. This is the longest of all of the pretrial hearings, lasting around 40 minutes. “The overwhelming opinion of people who live in Adams County is that he did it,” Elmore says during his argument.
Hardwick denies the motion for a change of venue. He said the defense team failed to prove allegation that Lovelace could not get a fair trial in Quincy because of massive pretrial publicity.
The defense is granted another extension. Hardwick sets new trial date of Nov. 30, 2015.
Another pretrial hearing finishes with another new trial date as Hardwick pushes the proceeding into 2016, setting the trial start for Jan. 25. Page tells Hardwick that this would be the last delay.
Lovelace’s defense team makes two motions at a pretrial hearing, asking that Lovelace’s second wife, Erica Gomez, be barred from testifying. The defense also asks that potential jurors be questioned individually during jury selection.
Hardwick grants the defense motion to bar Gomez from testifying. Hardwick also makes a plan where prospective jurors will be questioned in groups of four during the jury selection phase of the trial, a move that neither side objects to.
Lovelace's first-degree murder trial starts Jan. 25 in Adams County Circuit Court and ends Feb. 5 in a mistrial. The jury was deadlocked 6-6. Judge Bob Hardwick schedules a retrial to start May 31, 2016.
Lovelace's attorneys during the trial, James Elmore and Jeff Page confirm they will not represent him at his retrial.
A nonprofit group from Springfield, Ill., called Investigating Innocence takes on Lovelace's case. Private investigator Bill Clutter, a founding member of the group, says it is trying to find a lawyer to represent Lovelace for free. The group also sets up a fundraising web page to raise money for expert witnesses and other items needed for the retrial. Click find out more to view the fundraising page.
Clutter announces that the University of Chicago Exoneration Project has agreed to represent Lovelace for free. Jon Loevy, a clinical instructor with the project, met with Lovelace Feb. 26 at the Hancock County Jail. He and Tara Thompson, another project leader, will represent Lovelace.
During a status hearing, Judge Bob Hardwick sets July 25 as the date for the retrial. Lovelace's defense team files a motion to reduce Lovelace's $5 million bond and to provide free transcripts from the first trial. Former Adams County Chief Public Defender Edward Downey starts assisting the defense, also working for free.
Judge Bob Hardwick denies the defense's motion to reduce bond from $5 million to $1 million.
Lovelace's defense team files another motion for a reduction in bond, this time asking it to be lowered from $5 million to $3.5 million. Special prosecutor Ed Parkinson does not oppose the reduction. Supporters are ready to put up the $350,000 bond required to release Lovelace from jail.
Judge Bob Hardwick lowers Lovelace's bond to $3.5 million and moves the trial date to Oct. 24. Rich and Libby Herr, supporters of Lovelace post his bond.
Lovelace is released from the Hancock County Jail and reunited with his wife, Christine, and sons Larson and Lincoln. Lovelace and his wife hug for the first time in 651 days. Lovelace is placed on home confinement and has to wear an ankle device that monitors his movements and any alcohol use.
Hardwick grants the defense team's motion to access several document, including Cory Lovelace's health history, records from the Adams County coroner's office, Hansen-Spear Funeral Home and Memorial Medical Center in Springfield where the autopsy was done. The defense also gains access to Quincy Police Department records, including Detective Adam Gibson's phone logs, and his personal phone records from August 2013 to August 2014 would be matched with the phone number of Lovelace's second wife, Erika Gomez.
Prosecutors ask that phone records from Gibson be returned to Hardwick and destroyed.
Prosecutors file a motion asking Hardwick to order the defense team to use money raised through the online fundraiser to pay Dr. George Nichols II, an expert witness for the defense in the first trial. Loevy responds that it was troubling that prosecutors were advocating for Nichols, and the defense team would not be able to call him for the retrial.
Both sides agree to have the trial move into 2017. The defense team also files a motion for a change of venue in the case. A survey of 200 Adams County residents showed an overwhelming majority of those polled have heard about the case and more than a third made up their mind about Lovelace’s guilt or innocence.
Hardwick agrees with the defense motion to move the case to Sangamon County in the 7th Judicial Circuit after finding there was “reasonable apprehension” that Lovelace could receive a fair trial in Quincy.
Prosecutors file a motion seeking to admit evidence they say showed Lovelace choked his second wife and even tried to poison her and her daughter at one point.
Hardwick pushes the trial back to Feb. 27, scrubbing the Jan. 23 start date.
The defense team files multiple motions asking the judge to bar some evidence, including any evidence of police encounters involving Lovelace and Gomez.
The defense team asks Hardwick to reject evidence that Lovelace mistreated Gomez during their marriage as alleged by prosecutors.
Hardwick rules during a motion hearing in the Cass County Courthouse that Gomez would be allowed to testify on claims of abuse. He denies the motion to allow evidence prosecutors say showed Lovelace tried to poison Gomez and her daughter.
Hardwick rules that a laptop owned by Lovelace around the time Cory Lovelace died could not be entered as evidence during his retrial.
The defense team accuses prosecutors of not producing discovery evidence for the trial. This includes emails that reference “severe alcoholism” in the liver of Cory Lovelace from forensic pathologist Dr. Scott Denton.
Attorneys in the case hold the final pretrial conference, and prosecutors are ordered to take more steps and have the Quincy Police Department turn over more items to the defense team. The Feb. 27 trial date remains.
Hardwick rules to allow cameras in the courtroom during the trial. The media will also be allowed to live blog during the trial.
Lovelace's second trial is set to begin and is expected to take two weeks.
A jury finds Curtis Lovelace not guilty of first-degree murder after about two hours of deliberations.
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