Ex-brother-in-law arrested in Hudson family deaths

By DON BABWIN / Associated Press Writer

Published: December 1, 2008

CHICAGO (AP) - Police arrested the estranged brother-in-law of Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson on Monday for the murders of her mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew, taking him from a prison where he'd been held since just after the shooting deaths.

William Balfour was arrested at Stateville Correctional Center in the deaths of Darnell Hudson Donerson, Jason Hudson, and Julian King, said Chicago Police Department spokeswoman Monique Bond.

Balfour, 27, was released to detectives after they served the warrant around 2:45 p.m. and he awaited formal charges, Bond said. Balfour had not been charged by late Monday afternoon, said Andy Conklin, a spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office.

Until Monday, police only identified Balfour as a "person of interest" in the investigation.

The bodies of Donerson and Jason Hudson were discovered Oct. 24 at the family's home. Julian's body was found three days later in a sport utility vehicle on the city's West Side. All three had been shot.

Police took Balfour into custody the same day the bodies of Donerson and Hudson were discovered. After 48 hours — the longest Chicago police can hold a person without charges — Balfour was taken by the Illinois Department of Corrections on a parole violation.

Balfour, who is the estranged husband of Jennifer Hudson's older sister, Julia Hudson, and Julian's stepfather, served seven years for a 1999 attempted murder and vehicular hijacking conviction.

His mother, Michelle Balfour, of Chicago, has denied that her son had anything to do with the deaths. Telephone numbers for Balfour's mother and sister were disconnected Monday.

Balfour had refused to take a lie-detector test and stopped cooperating with detectives in the case, a police official, who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, has said.

Police have confirmed that they found the gun used in the killings. The .45-caliber gun was discovered Oct. 29 in a vacant lot in the West Side neighborhood where the King's body was found a few days earlier inside the SUV.

Bond declined to discuss any evidence Monday. But after a hearing at Stateville, the chairman of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board said a woman had told authorities that a gun used in the slayings was "identical" to the gun that was recovered.

At the time, Chairman Jorge Montes said the evidence was key to a decision finding probably cause that Balfour violated his parole and should remain locked up pending a Dec. 3 hearing before a review board panel.

Balfour did not have an attorney at the November hearing, and the Cook County Public Defender's office said at the time nobody from the office had been assigned because he was not formally charged with a crime.

No one in the public defender's office was assigned to Balfour's case late Monday, and it's not clear if he had an attorney.

_____ Associated Press Writers Sophia Tareen and Caryn Rousseau contributed to this report.