9 years, 7 months ago by Scott Hardy
On stand for 2 1/2 hours
It was an emotional afternoon in the Curt Lovelace murder re-trial in Springfield.
Testimony is done for the day, after Lovelace's second wife Erika Gomez testified for over two hours Monday. According to KHQA's Jenny Dreasler, Gomez claimed that the former Assistant State's Attorney physically and sexually abused her during their marriage, as well as physically abusing his children. She also claimed that Lovelace stole 20 thousand dollars of child support payments by forging her Social Security number, and forged insurance paperwork for his daughter Lyndsay. Gomez broke down in tears several times on the stand, including once during an exchange with defense attorney Jon Loevy over a statement she allegedly made to the Illinois National Guard about the alleged abuse. It was disallowed by Judge Bob Hardwick. Loevy asserted that Gomez made the accusation to the National Guard to help her divorce hearing with Lovelace in 2013. Gomez also testified about the alleged poisoning incident that happened after Lovelace moved out in 2012, which had been disallowed by Hardwick at an earlier hearing. Dr. Jane Turner, who testified at the first trial, repeated her assertion that Cory's death was a homicide, and that she died of suffocation. Turner will return to the stand Tuesday morning.
Earlier in the day, those same jurors heard more from the Quincy Police officer who first investigated the case.
QPD Sergeant and former Detective Jeff Baird was on the stand in Springfield Monday morning from another 2 and a half hours. During that time he went over his initial investigation into Cory Lovelace's 2006 death, including his four interviews with Curt Lovelace, and his interviews with three of the four children. Special Prosecutor Ed Parkinson got Baird to admit that he did not attend Cory's autopsy, and that "he should have". Similar to the first trial, Parkinson fired a series of pointed questions at Baird during his re-direct, and accused Baird of deferring to the former Adams County prosecutor. Baird denied the charge. Parkinson also questioned why Baird didn't interview Lovelace's youngest child Larson in 2006.
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