The most compelling testimony in the Jennifer Hudson murder trial that starts (TODAY) Monday is expected from 34 year old Julia Hudson, Jennifer Hudson’s eldest sister (seen below) and William Balfour’s ex-wife.
30 year old Balfour, the estranged husband of Hudson’s sister, Julia, has been charged with killing the singer’s mother, Darnell Donerson, her 29-year-old brother, Jason Hudson, and her 7-year-old nephew, Julian King.
The couple married on Dec. 20, 2006, in Chicago, not long after he was released from prison. They had known each other in high school. For a time, 30 year old Balfour, worked as a baker, his mother said, and lived in the family’s home in the 7000 block of South Yale Avenue.
Then the couple separated and grew estranged. Balfour moved out in May 2008, and grappled, allegedly, with his wife’s decision to see another man.
Prosecutors allege Balfour (SEEN BELOW WITH HAIR CUT), shot the family in a jealous rage because Julia Hudson was dating another man.
Balfour, known to friends as “Flex,” had threatened to kill Julia Hudson’s family over two dozen times in the days leading up to the murders, Cook County prosecutors have said, but she didn’t think he would ever follow through with his deadly plans.
The single mother eventually told Balfour she planned to get intimate with her new partner on her birthday, Oct. 23, 2008, prosecutors have said.
The next day, Hudson’s mother, Darnell Donerson, 57, and brother, Jason Hudson, 29, were found shot to death in the family’s home on Chicago’s South Side in October 2008. The body of her nephew Julian King was found days later in a vehicle several miles away.
Julia Hudson is expected to testify about how she let Balfour into her family’s home to use the washroom hours before her two adult family members were killed. While the family slept, Balfour allegedly grew enraged when he spotted several balloons he presumed were from Julia Hudson’s beau. An argument kicked off, but Julia Hudson let Balfour out of her home as she left for her job as a school bus driver, prosecutors said.
As she drove away, Julia Hudson eyed Balfour hanging around the home from her rear view mirror, prosecutors have said.
Jurors will not learn before the trial that he was on parole at the time of the shootings. He was convicted in 1999 of attempted murder, vehicular hijacking and receiving stolen property, state records show. He spent nearly seven years in prison.
Balfour’s mother, Michele Davis Balfour, has denied his involvement.
Balfour’s mom believes prosecutors made a deal with Balfour’s girlfriend to drop a pending drug case against the young woman in exchange for her testimony that she saw Balfour with the murder weapon.
Meanwhile the home (seen above) of the deadly killings now sits vacant behind a rusty iron fence that separates an overgrown yard from the cracked sidewalk.
SCOOP: SUNTIMES/BlackMediaScoop.com
