A star football player at the University of Illinois, Curtis Lovelace returned to his western Illinois hometown with a law degree. Later, he served as a prosecutor who held lawbreakers accountable and as the local school board president.
The former team captain and two-time All-Big Ten standout now faces his own day in court on a first-degree murder charge in the killing of his first wife, who died on Valentine's Day in 2006. Jury selection began Monday in Quincy, Illinois, with five groups of prospective jurors questioned by Judge Bob Hardwick, special prosecutor Ed Parkinson and Lovelace's defense team of James Elmore and Jeff Page.