VIRGINIA, Ill. (AP) — A judge has ruled prosecutors can present evidence that Curtis Lovelace was abusive to his second wife when he is retried in his first wife’s death.
It’s a reversal from the former Adams County prosecutor’s first trial when Erika Gomez was barred from testifying about the claims.
Lovelace is charged with first-degree murder in 38-year-old Cory Lovelace’s Valentine’s Day 2006 death. He faces a Feb. 27 second trial after the first ended with a deadlocked jury.
Lovelace’s attorney argued Gomez’s testimony would include “vindictive, angry and untrue allegations,” and would turn the trial into a “sideshow.”
Lovelace has said he found his first wife dead in bed. An initial autopsy was inconclusive, but prosecutors argued subsequent forensic tests and photographic evidence determined she was suffocated.
