Ex-prosecutor, football star on trial in wife's 2006 death

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 3:24 p.m. ET

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QUINCY, Ill. (AP) A former football captain for the University of Illinois goes on trial this week in the 2006 death of his first wife.

Forty-seven-year-old Curtis Lovelace has pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder.

An initial autopsy on Cory Lovelace's body was inconclusive, but subsequent pathology tests sought by police in 2014 determined that the 38-year-old mother of four died from suffocation.

Jury selection began Monday morning in Quincy. A special state prosecutor was appointed in light of Curtis Lovelace's seven-year stint as an assistant Adams County state's attorney.

Lovelace was a three-year starting center and two-time all-Big Ten selection at Illinois, where he also completed law school.

He told authorities that he found Corey Lovelace dead in bed after dropping off three of their children at school.