Updated 9:20 p.m. EDT April 23: Julia Hudson capped off an emotional day of testimony in Courtroom 500. Her sister, Jennifer, who sat next to her fiancé, David Otunga, in the courtroom, wept quietly as prosecutors played a recording of the 911 call her sister made after discovering their mother's body on the living room floor. At first Julia thought her mom had fallen after taking ill.
The dispatcher told a sobbing Julia to stop yelling because he could not understand her. She was crying for help and saying, "My mama, mama."
She portrayed Balfour as a jealous-hearted man who repeatedly made threats against her family. She alleged that he even became enraged when her son kissed her. She said he'd say, "Get off my wife."
Earlier in the day Jennifer Hudson, the prosecution's first witness, testified that the family did not want Julia to marry Balfour in the first place.
"None of us wanted her to marry him," Hudson said. "I would tell her over and over again not to marry William. We didn't like the way he treated her."
Balfour grew up in the same Englewood neighborhood as the Hudsons and attended the same grade school as Jennifer, she testified.
When asked if she liked Balfour, Jennifer Hudson said, "Never. Not even in grammar school."
That was one of the few moments when Balfour looked at Hudson. Otherwise Balfour, who chewed gum, sat slumped in his chair and stared blankly toward the jury.
Prosecutors painted Balfour as a narcissist who worked as a drug dealer. They allege that he stalked Julia after she rebuffed him. While defense attorneys did not try to defend his character, they did say he is no murderer. In fact, public defender Amy Thompson raised the specter that the murders may have occurred as a result of Jason Hudson, who worked as a drug dealer.
Read the rest at The Root.
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