Police Formally Charge William Balfour with Hudson Slayings

By Rebecca Brody
14:07, December 3rd 2008
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Police Formally Charge William Balfour with Hudson Slayings

Jennifer Hudson’s estranged brother-in-law was formally charged on Tuesday with three counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of the Academy Award-winning actress’ mother, brother and nephew.

William Balfour, who is expected to attend a bail hearing on Wednesday, has also been charged with one count of home invasion.

Police told reporters that they trusted the evidence they had gathered was sufficient in order to sentence the 27-year-old estranged husband of Jennifer Hudson’s elder sister, Julia.

“You can never always know how a jury will decide a case but I’m confident the evidence is there and I’m confident we’ll be successful,” Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis explained.

The evidence police rely on includes the murder weapon, a .45-caliber gun, as well as testimonies by various witnesses.

William Balfour has been in police custody on a parole violation, since the bodies of the “Dreamgirls” star’s 57-year old mother, Darnell Donerson, and 29-year-old brother, Jason Hudson, were found on October 24 at their residence on the South Side of Chicago.

The remains of 7-year-old Julian King were discovered three days later in an abandoned vehicle that belonged to his uncle.

Although authorities had only named William Balfour a “person of interest” in the case, he was not arrested for the shooting deaths of Jennifer Hudson’s relatives until Monday.

After examining the SUV in which the body of Jennifer Hudson’s young nephew had been found, analyzing the murder weapon and re-interrogating witnesses, police detained William Balfour at Stateville Correctional Center, where he had been held for parole violation.

Despite the fact that he had been police’s lone suspect since the beginning of the investigation, William Balfour’s attorney informed reporters on Monday night that his client denied all allegations. Joshua Kutnick explained that police had a “very, very weak” case against his client.

However, witnesses spotted Julia Hudson’s estranged husband in Jason Hudson’s SUV and at the family’s house the same day the slayings took place, while his girlfriend told investigators that she had seen William Balfour with a gun that looked a lot like the murder weapon and that he had confessed.

Police detained the 27-year-old the same day the first two bodies were discovered and after a couple of days, the longest period of time Chicago police can hold a person without charges, he was taken to the Illinois Department of Corrections due to parole violation. William Balfour had been on parole after serving seven years in prison for a 1999 attempted murder and vehicular hijacking conviction.

Police found the murder weapon on October 29, in a vacant lot near the place where Julian King’s body had been discovered.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Deputy Supt. Steve Peterson said that the motive of the crime was an enduring domestic dispute between William Balfour and Jennifer Hudson’s sister.



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