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Hudson hears policeman's evidence

The trial of the man charged with murdering three of Jennifer Hudson's family members has resumed, with the Oscar-winner listening to a police officer's painful description of finding her dead family members.

Ms Hudson sat next to her fiance as prosecutors shifted their focus to presenting crime scene evidence in the case against her former brother-in-law William Balfour.

Ms Hudson hung her head and shut her eyes as Chicago police Sergeant David Dowling described finding her mother's body sprawled in the living room with gunshot wounds through her back.

She did not move as Sgt Dowling described finding her brother dead in his bed of a gunshot wound to the head. His sheets were pulled up as if he had been sleeping. Balfour was estranged from his wife, Ms Hudson's sister, at the time of the killings. He has pleaded not guilty to murdering Hudson's mother, brother and seven-year-old nephew.

With no surviving witnesses to the murders, prosecutors must offer overwhelming circumstantial evidence that Balfour committed the crimes on October 24 2008. They are expected to introduce evidence in the next few days that includes mobile phone records and security-camera footage that place Balfour in the area of the killings, because he denies he was there.

Another challenge will be tying Balfour to the alleged murder weapon, a silver and black .45-calibre handgun that sat on a stack of papers at the prosecution table in plain view of jurors and Ms Hudson.

Public defender Amy Thompson told jurors during her opening statement that DNA found on the gun did not match Balfour, which "absolutely, positively" excludes him as the killer. But prosecutors claim that Balfour targeted the family in a horrific act of vindictiveness against his ex-wife.

Shortly after Ms Thompson and prosecutors laid out their cases, Jennifer Hudson took the witness stand in sometimes tearful, gut-wrenching testimony. Hudson, who was in Florida at the time of the shootings, spoke of her family and her reaction to her sister, Julia Hudson, telling her in 2006 that she was marrying Balfour.

"None of us wanted her to marry him," the 30-year-old said, her voice cracking as she struggled to hold back tears.

If convicted of at least two of the murder counts, Balfour would face a mandatory life sentence.

Source: music.uk.msn.com
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