The man convicted of killing Jennifer Hudson’s family has been sentenced to life in prison by an Illinois judge.
Cook County, Ill. Judge Charles Patrick Burns had harsh words for William Balfour before sentencing him to three life sentences in addition to 120 years for aggravated kidnapping and home invasion in the 2008 murders of Hudson’s mother, 57-year-old Darnell Donerson, her brother, Jason Hudson, 29, and her 7-year-old nephew, Julian King.
“You have the heart of an arctic night. Your soul is as barren as dark space,” Burns told Balfour, according to The Chicago Tribune.
In October 2008, Hudson’s mother and Jason Hudson were found dead in their Chicago home. Three days later, King was found dead in an abandoned vehicle.
Balfour was convicted of the charges in May, with prosecutors and Hudson portraying him as a lover scorned. Balfour believed Hudson’s sister, to whom he was married, was having an affair.
During the trial, Hudson was called as a witness and said that no one in the family wanted her sister to marry Balfour.
“None of us wanted her to marry him,” Hudson said on the witness stand according to CNN. “We did not like how he treated her. “Where he was, I tried not to be.”