William Balfour (AP)
REMEMBERED: Singer Jennifer Hudson with her brother Jason (left), one of the victims of the 2008 bloodbath allegedly committed by William Balfour (right). (
)
CHICAGO — Grammy and Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson may take the stage for her most important performance yet — as a prosecution witness against the man accused of murdering her mom, brother and 7-year-old nephew.
The trial begins today for William Balfour, Hudson’s estranged brother-in-law who is charged with following through on his threat to kill members of his ex-wife’s family in a fit of jealous rage.
Prosecutors say Balfour, 30, threatened more than two dozen times to kill the singer’s sister, Julia Hudson, and her family in the months before the 2008 murders in Chicago.
“If you leave me, I’m going to kill you,” Balfour allegedly told Julia Hudson in July 2008, according to court papers. “You will be the last. I’ll kill your family first.”
His jealously was already simmering Oct. 9, 2008, when he asked Julia Hudson if she had slept with her new boyfriend.
She told him she planned to do it on her birthday, Oct. 23, 2008, and Balfour lost it — once again threatening to “kill your family first, then kill you,” according to court documents.
A day after her birthday, Julia Hudson saw Balfour standing outside her bedroom window and let him inside. He saw balloons that her new boyfriend had given her and lost his temper, court documents say.
Later that day, Julia and Jennifer’s mother, Darnell Donerson, 57, and brother Jason Hudson, 29, were found dead in their home.
The body of Julia’s son, Julian King, 7, was found days later, in a car miles away.
Jennifer Hudson, 30, and her sister have become inseparable since the murders, a family friend told The Post.
“This is devastating for them, but the bond they share is what’s keeping them together and is how they’re going to get through it,” said Harvey Star Washington, a Washington, DC, fashion producer.
Washington said Hudson’s sister is her confidante and goes with the star everywhere she travels. The two are hanging on to their late mother’s lessons of strength in family and faith to make it through the trial.
“They learned so much from their mom,” Washington said. “She taught them to be strong, to never give up — keeping their heads lifted up to let people know that, through tragedy, you can go on and you can still be the best you can be.”
Still, the trial will be hard for the Hudson sisters.
“Going into a court to face the murder trial of three of your family members is hard. It’s something that you don’t want to relive again,” Washington said.