QUINCY, Ill. (AP) – A special prosecutor has asked a western Illinois judge to deny a change of venue request from a former Illinois prosecutor accused of killing his first wife.

The Quincy Herald-Whig reports that special prosecutor Ed Parkinson sent an 18-page filing to the Adams County Court asking to keep Curtis Lovelace’s trial in Quincy. The former Adams County state’s attorney’s trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 21.

Lovelace’s attorney filed a motion earlier this month asking to move the trial from the county where he served as chief prosecutor.

The former football standout at Illinois was charged in August 2014 with first-degree murder in 38-year-old Cory Lovelace’s fatal suffocation eight years earlier.

The 46-year-old has pleaded not guilty and remains in jail in lieu of $5 million bond.