In an eerie scene in a Chicago courtroom, William Balfour, the man convicted of slaying three members of Jennifer Hudson’s family, actually spoke before he was sentenced by the judge. It was the first time since his arrest almost four years ago that Balfour has spoken publicly.
“My deepest sympathies go to Julian King,” he said of his stepson and Hudson’s 7-year-old nephew, whom he killed. “I loved him. I still love him.” Balfour gazed across the packed courtroom toward his own family. He didn’t look at Hudson or her relatives on the other side of the aisle.
The courtroom momentarily froze. Then Balfour’s sister, Sensuous (yes, her real name), burst into tears and ran out of the court. Hudson and her sister Julia, Balfour’s ex-wife, sat silently and dabbed at their eyes with tissues.
That was about it for the suspense. Under Illinois law, Judge Charles Burns was legally bound to give Balfour a sentence of life in prison without parole because he had been convicted of more than one murder. The judge imposed a consecutive life sentence for each of the murders as well as 120 years for Balfour’s additional convictions for home invasion, possession of a stolen motor vehicle and aggravated kidnapping.
But the judge did have some things to say to Balfour, his voice growing shaky as he gave the convicted murderer an emotional tongue-lashing.
Burns said Balfour’s claims that he loved Julian “an insult to all of us.”
“Your heart is an arctic night, and your soul is as barren as dark space,” Burns said to Balfour in a shaky voice. Burns said Balfour undoubtedly killed Julian because he was in the way and could have been a witness against him. When he killed the boy, Hudson’s mother, Darnell Donerson, 57, and brother, Jason Hudson, 29, already had been killed in the family’s Englewood neighborhood house, prosecutors said.
Julian “shared his life with you. For sure he looked up to you,” Burns said. “There is no doubt in my mind he looked up to you as you were putting bullets into his head. I just hope his terror was short-lived.”
