Sister’s ex guilty in Hudson family triple murder
Oscar winner weeps as verdict read
Actor Jennifer Hudson cried softly as her former brother-in-law was convicted Friday of murdering her mother, brother and seven-year-old nephew.
Hudson bowed her head as jurors entered the courtroom Friday afternoon.
The Academy Award-winning actor, who attended each day of the trial, leaned forward when the verdict was read and wept as her fiance comforted her and family members squeezed her shoulders.
Hudson stood on tiptoe to watch the jurors as they walked out of the courtroom.
William Balfour was found guilty on all counts of murder, home invasion, armed robbery and kidnapping and faces mandatory life in prison.
His attorney, Amy Thompson, said she would file a motion for a new trial on June 8 and would be preparing an appeal. “There are issues of law,” she said. “We do have hope.”
The verdict came less than three hours after jurors sent out a note telling the judge they were split but trying to reach a decision. Jurors gave a breakdown of their votes but Judge Charles Burns did not disclose it.
A second note, issued at the same time, asked for all available evidence about the “cellphone tower coverage.”
The note concluded by saying “we are trying,” an apparent reference to their continued talks.
The judge agreed to send back a transcript of the testimony of FBI Special Agent Nikki Skovran, who performed a forensic analysis of Balfour’s cellphone from the day of the murders that placed him near the Hudson home around the time the victims were shot.
Balfour, who turned 31 Thursday, was accused of fatally shooting the singer’s mother, Darnell Donerson, 57; her brother, Jason Hudson, 29, and her nephew Julian King in October 2008.
Prosecutors alleged he was upset that his estranged wife, Hudson’s sister, Julia, had begun seeing another man and wanted a divorce.
The largely circumstantial case had no DNA or fingerprints tying Balfour to the crime.