NEWSJennifer Hudson's Star Status May Sway Jury in Murder Case
April 25 2012, Published 8:52 a.m. ET
The court case surrounding the 2008 triple homicide of Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and nephew is becoming more and more foggy.
While the prosecution hopes to nail William Balfour, estranged ex-husband of Jennifer's sister Julia, and convict him of three counts of first degree murder, home invasions and kidnapping, the evidence is unfortunately too "thin" as Los Angeles defense attorney Dana Cole tells RadarOnline.com, to make it a slam dunk.
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“Much of the evidence relies on gunshot residue that was found on the wheels of Balfour’s car, which is pretty thin as that can come from all sorts of places,” said Cole. “You can’t forensically tie it to a specific weapon."
That being said, Cole believes Jennifer's enormous star power, Chicago fan base and tears on the stand may help tug at the jurors heart strings and make a conviction a reality.
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“It will be a difficult job for the defense to prevent the jury from having sympathy for the celebrity in the courtroom," she said.
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Jennifer took the stand on Monday and told the jury that nobody in her family trusted William or liked the way he treated her nephew. The defense fired back saying Jennifer's brother, Jason, was a big-time drug dealer who could very well have ended up dead due to his "violent" choice of employment.
If convicted, William will likely spend the rest of his life in prison. At the the time of the murders he was on parole after spending seven years behind bars for attempted murder and vehicular hijacking.
