Curtis Lovelace goes on trial charged with Valentine's Day murder of wife

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Curtis Lovelace, 47, has been charged with suffocating his wife in 2006
Lovelace said wife Cory, 38, has 'flu-like symptoms' before her death
Investigators found Lovelace never called 911 or tried to resuscitate Cory
The Illinois couple married in 1991, Lovelace married twice since her death
Lovelace is a former University of Illinois football captain and prosecutor

By Associated Press and Kalhan Rosenblatt For Dailymail.com

Published: 19:03 EST, 25 January 2016 | Updated: 20:36 EST, 25 January 2016

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A former University of Illinois football star-turned-prosecutor is set to stand trial for his wife's 2006 Valentine's Day murder after a new autopsy revealed she had been suffocated.

Curtis Lovelace's first wife Cory, 38, was found dead in their home on Valentine's Day 2006 after Lovelace took the couple's children to school.

Jury selection began today in Quincy, Illinois, for the former University of Illinois football captain and two-time All-Big Ten standout's first-degree murder trial.

Curtis Lovelace (pictured, center) has been charged with the 2006 Valentine's Day murder of his wife Cory

Lovelace, 47, who also served as his community's school board president, pleaded not guilty to the charge, which came eight and a half years after Cory's death at their home.

Cory Lovelace, 38, (pictured) died in her home on Valentine's Day in 2006. A pathology test determined she was suffocated to death in her bed

Lovelace told authorities that he found his wife, whom he claimed had flu-like symptoms for several days, dead in bed after dropping off three of their children at school.

The initial autopsy of the 38-year-old's body was inconclusive, but pathology tests of the cremated body and photographic evidence later determined that the mother of four died from suffocation.

An investigator later said Lovelace never called 911 or tried to resuscitate his wife of 13 years.

'Delayed justice is just as important as timely justice,' said Quincy Police Chief Rob Copley.

Copley said his department 'dropped the ball' after the initial autopsy and a coroner's jury were unable to pinpoint how Cory died.

Because Curtis Lovelace spent seven years as an assistant state's attorney in Adams County a special state prosecutor will argue the case. Lovelace was arrested when he left his law office to get lunch.

Lovelace was a three-year starting center on University of Illinois teams led by future NFL quarterback Jeff George and former University of Illinois coach John Mackovic called Lovelace 'the brains of the whole team' in a 2008 interview.

Curtis Lovelace and Cory, who were former Quincy High School classmates, married in January 1991.

Lovelace married twice after Cory's death.

Curtis Lovelace is in jail after being charged with first-degree murder. He denies murdering his wife, Cory

Cory was found dead in the couple's Quincy, Illinois, home (pictured, left). She was cremated after her death

CURTIS LOVELACE'S HISTORY OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ACCOLADES

In 1999 Lovelace was elected to his local school board.

He spent 12 years on the board and eight years as its president.

In 2009, he joined the Illinois Army National Guard and earned the rank of captain.

He served as a trial defense lawyer for soldiers facing disciplinary actions.

Lovelace was a three-sport star in track, wrestling and football in the 1980s and became a Quincy High School Hall of Fame member.

He was a football captain for the University of Illinois and a two-time all-Big Ten pick.

He has a law degree from the University of Illinois.

Prosecutors planned to call Lovelace's second wife, whom he married in May 2008 in Puerto Rico and divorced in September 2013, to testify, but a judge rejected that request last month.

Curtis and Cory Lovelace's two youngest children, ages 14 and 17, continue to live with Lovelace's third wife, according to Cory Lovelace's mother, Martha Didriksen.

It's not clear whether Lovelace, who has remained in jail since his arrest, will testify in his own defense; he's not listed among the 10 defense witnesses whose names were submitted to the court in late December.

Didriksen said she will wait for the trial to unfold before deciding if her former son-in-law murdered her daughter. If he is guilty, Didriksen said she's 'forgiven him ... Because I had to.'

'Otherwise it eats you alive,' she said.

Curtis Lovelace's defense lawyers and family members did not respond to requests for comment.

The trial is expected to continue into the first week of February.