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Aurora man convicted again of murdering stepdaughter

An Aurora man again faces the possibility of the death penalty after a DuPage County jury Tuesday convicted him for the second time of brutally murdering his 16-year-old stepdaughter, who had accused him of rape.

The jury of seven men and five women deliberated roughly an hour before finding 44-year-old Laurence Lovejoy guilty of first-degree murder in the March 27, 2004, slaying of Erin “EJ” Justice. Jurors also found Lovejoy guilty of murder “exceptionally brutal or heinous, and indicative of wanton cruelty.”

Lovejoy shook his head slowly as the verdict was read but otherwise showed little reaction in the jury’s presence.

Rejoicing with family outside court, the victim’s father, Edreick Justice, attributed the jury’s swiftness to an “airtight” case.

He didn’t hesitate when asked if Lovejoy should be put to death.

“Absolutely. As a family, we’re in favor of it,” he said. “He does not belong with the rest of us.”

Prosecutors said Lovejoy forced the Waubonsie Valley High School student at knifepoint to drink potentially fatal amounts of over-the-counter medications before beating her with a blunt object, slashing her wrists and throat, and eventually drowning her in an upstairs bathtub.

The murder at an Aurora townhouse where Justice and her mother had relocated took place about three weeks after the teenager told police Lovejoy raped her at their previous home in Naperville.

Among evidence presented at trial was a partial bare footprint that was found in Justice’s blood at the crime scene and matched Lovejoy’s, according to a forensic expert. DNA tests conducted before the murder also corroborated — after Justice’s death — details she gave of being raped by Lovejoy on March 3, 2004.

Lovejoy had been allowed to remain free while the tests were pending but agreed to have no contact with his stepdaughter.

“One person and one person only on this Earth had the motive to kill Erin Justice,” Assistant State’s Attorney Jeffrey Muntz said in closing arguments Tuesday, pointing at Lovejoy. “It was this defendant right here. He would need a warehouse to store all the motive he had built up in his mind. He needed her out of the picture, and he needed her out of the picture fast.”

A jury convicted Lovejoy and sentenced him to death in 2007, but the Illinois Supreme Court later overturned the verdict and ordered a new trial.

In his appeal, Lovejoy argued he was denied a fair trial because he was not allowed to present last-minute evidence suggesting his footprint could have been left at the scene before Justice’s murder.

Assistant Public Defender Mark Lyon continued to assert Tuesday that it was a “pre-existing” print subsequently covered in the victim’s blood.

“The bloody footprint is a myth,” he told jurors.

Valerie Justice, the victim’s mother, said later that she was relieved a second jury saw fit to convict Lovejoy.

“We got justice for Justice finally,” she said.

Erin “EJ” Justice
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