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No. In March 2017, a Sangamon County jury found Curtis Lovelace not guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his first wife, Cory Lovelace. The verdict followed a 2016 trial that ended in a mistrial when jurors could not agree unanimously. It resolved the criminal charge against Curtis; it did not establish a definitive cause of Cory’s death.
What happened in the case?
Cory Lovelace died in Quincy, Illinois, on February 14, 2006. The Seventh Circuit’s account says the cause of death was undetermined at the time. In August 2014, an Adams County grand jury indicted Curtis Lovelace for first-degree murder.
The case went to trial in February 2016, but the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. The court declared a mistrial. In September 2016, the trial court granted a change of venue, moving the case to Sangamon County. After a two-week retrial, a jury found Curtis not guilty in March 2017.
These procedural details are set out in the Illinois Appellate Court’s opinion in People v. Lovelace and the Seventh Circuit’s account of the case.
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Why was there a retrial?
The first trial did not end in either a conviction or an acquittal: the jurors were unable to agree unanimously, so the court declared a mistrial. A later trial was held in Sangamon County after the court approved a change of venue. The 2017 verdict came from that retrial.
What did the jury decide—and what did it not decide?
The jury found Curtis Lovelace not guilty of the first-degree-murder charge. That is an acquittal on the charge tried; it is not a judicial finding that Cory died naturally, nor does it determine how she died. The Seventh Circuit’s history says the cause was undetermined when she died, and the cited case accounts do not establish a definitive cause.
How did the two sides describe the evidence?
Trial coverage described sharply different arguments. The prosecution argued that Cory had been suffocated. The defense argued that the evidence did not establish murder. Those were opposing advocates’ positions, not a settled medical finding. The jury’s verdict was that Curtis was not guilty of the charged offense.
CBS News’ 48 Hours coverage reported the trial arguments and verdict. They should be read as accounts of what the sides argued in court, not as a definitive determination of cause of death.
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In May 2017, Curtis Lovelace and his sons filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against local officers and government entities. The Seventh Circuit’s procedural history describes claims that included allegations of fabricated evidence, witness coercion, and concealment of exculpatory evidence. These are allegations in a separate civil case, not findings made by the criminal jury. The Seventh Circuit opinion recounts that litigation separately from the criminal proceedings.
A separate state appellate matter discussed retained bond funds and related costs. It concerned the bond dispute, not whether Curtis was guilty of murder.
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