William Balfour Arrested in Jennifer Hudson's Family Murder Case

Tue, 02 December 2008 04:04:30 ET

Estranged brother-in-law of Jennifer Hudson, William Balfour, was arrested on Monday, December 1 for murder case of Jennifer Hudson's family although his involvement still is very weak.

Being identified as "person of interest", the estranged brother-in-law of Jennifer Hudson, William Balfour, was arrested on Monday, December 1 in connection with the murders of the singer/actress' mother, brother and nephew in October. The police took him from a prison where he had been held on a suspected parole violation.

Balfour was arrested at Stateville Correctional Center on an account of accusing him of murdering the relatives of Jennifer, said Chicago police spokeswoman Monique Bond. Meanwhile, Tandra Simonton, the spokeswoman for the Cook County state's attorney's office, stated that he hasn't been formally charged with the slayings.

The police has named him "person of interest" because Balfour, who is Julian's stepfather and the estranged husband of Jennifer Hudson's older sister, Julia Hudson, had gone to prison for seven year due to 1999's murder attempts and vehicular hijacking conviction. The suspicion of him as the murderer grows stronger as Balfour had refused to take a lie-detector test and has refused to be friendly with detectives, according to an unnamed police official.

Regarding the case, the police have confirmed they found the gun used in the killings. The .45 caliber gun was discovered October 29 in an empty unused area in the West Side neighborhood where King's body was found inside an SUV a few days earlier. Since the gun has been found, Board Chairman Jorge Montes said Balfour has a possibility to violate his parole and should remain in prison pending a December 3 hearing before a review board panel.

Although Balfour has been arrested, his attorney and Michelle Davis-Balfour, his mother said that the possibility of being guilty in the case is weak. His lawyer, Joshua Kutnick, argued to reporters outside police headquarter, "He vehemently denies that he is guilty in this case." He added, "Any evidence pointing to Mr. Balfour is not even thin. It is very, very weak." Regarding the case, Balfour's mother, Michelle Davis-Balfour, also defended him, saying "If they found gun powder on his hands, you got a case; if they found a gun on him, he had a case; if they found a fingerprint on the truck that he did this, you got a case; but they don't have nothing."

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