Grammy and Oscar winning singer and actress Jennifer Hudson testified on Monday that she had known the man charged with killing three members of her family since they were in middle school together but never liked him.
After numerous dismissals due to the high profile nature of the case, the final jury members have now been seated in the murder trial for the man who allegedly killed Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and nephew.
The jury of 12 people and six alternatives, which include an acrobat and a retired Chicago Transit Authority dispatcher whose son is a shooting victim, were seated on Tuesday to allow the trial of William Balfour to begin.
Jennifer set the stage for the prosecution in its case against her former brother-in-law, William Balfour, charged with fatally shooting her mother, brother and nephew in 2008. Hudson was the first witness.
Her voice cracking with emotion, Hudson, 30, told the Chicago jury that she had warned her sister Julia against marrying Balfour.
"None of us, myself, my mother, or my brother, we did not like how he treated her, and I didn't like how he treated my nephew," Hudson said. Balfour, married to Hudson's sister Julia Hudson, did not treat Julia or her son, Julian, well, Hudson testified. "I would tell her (Julia) over and over again not to marry William," she said.
Balfour, who was estranged from Julia at the time of the killing, is accused of committing the murders while allegedly in a jealous rage over what he thought was another man in Julia's life. Balfour has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer has said there is no forensic evidence tying him to the murders.
Hudson testified about the harrowing day of October 24, 2008, when she learned that her mother and brother were dead and her nephew was missing. She flew home to Chicago and identified her mother and brother's bodies at the morgue. On October 27, she was back at the morgue to identify her nephew's body.
Julia Hudson separated from William Balfour in February 2008, Julia Hudson said, and three months later he begged her to come back. When she said she could not, Balfour said he would kill her family, she testified. "If you leave me, you'll be the last to die," Julia Hudson said Balfour told her. "I'm going to kill your family first."
The day before the murders had been Julia's birthday, and prosecutors said Balfour had been enraged at seeing at the house balloons bought by another man for Julia. The trial has brought a swarm of national media to the historic Cook County criminal courthouse.
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