QUINCY, Ill. (AP) — A juror in the first-degree murder trial of a former Illinois prosecutor accused of suffocating his sleeping wife says that “most everyone felt he was guilty,” but the panel couldn’t agree on a conviction because of a lack of evidence.
Susie Koontz tells the (Quincy) Herald-Whig the 10-woman, two-man jury deadlocked on the charge against ex-Adams County assistant state’s attorney Curtis Lovelace after deliberating 16 hours over two days.
Judge Bob Hardwick declared a mistrial in the case Friday. A retrial is set for May 31.
Lovelace, a former University of Illinois football captain and Quincy school board president, had pleaded not guilty to killing Cory Lovelace, his first wife.
He is being held in the Hancock County Jail on a $5 million bond.