Jurors returned to a Chicago courthouse Thursday to resume deliberating the case against Jennifer Hudson's former brother-in-law, who is accused of murdering three of the Oscar-winner's family members because her sister refused to take him back.
Judge Charles Burns ordered the jurors sequestered at a hotel for the night after they deliberated for four hours Wednesday following closing arguments in the case against William Balfour.
Jurors began deliberations on Wednesday afternoon. Shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday, the judge announced that they had not reached a verdict and were being sequestered in a hotel.
At such high-profile trials, jurors are often not permitted to go home to ensure they don't view media coverage of the case.
Burns told jurors their cell phones also would be seized. He said they must understand that their communications must be "cut off with the outside world" as they deliberate.
Jennifer Hudson couldn't bear to watch much of the prosecution's closing argument on Wednesday. She never left the courtroom, but buried her head in her lap, as Assistant States Attorney Jennifer Bagby once again showed the jury photos of the murder victims, Hudson's mother Darnell Donerson, brother Jason and nephew Julian, and walked the jury through the evidence.
Balfour stared blankly ahead, as he has through most of the trial.
Defense attorney Amy Thompson suggested Balfour was framed with circumstantial evidence by police desperate to solve a high profile crime.
"Every piece of DNA found absolutely excludes William Balfour," she argued. "the one person in all of Chicago who we know didn't do it is him."
With prosecutors repeatedly describing how Balfour cheated on Hudson's sister Julia, Thompson responded, "He is not on trial for being a dog. No doubt he is."
Prosecutor Jim McKay opened by pouncing on that line, saying "calling the defendant a
dog is an insult to dogs."
He mocked any idea that Balfour was framed, wondering how 83 witnesses ranging from cell phone experts to Englewood crack users could have worked together to pull it off.
After detailing Balfour's movements on the day of the murders on South Yale, McKay gritted his teeth and said, "If you're innocent, you get your butt back to Yale. You be with your caring wife. You man up. Quit thinking about yourself."
Balfour pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder. If convicted on all counts, he faces a mandatory life prison term.
