Ex-brother-in-law guilty of murdering Jennifer Hudson's relatives CHICAGO - Actress Jennifer Hudson softly sobbed and leaned into her fiance's shoulder Friday as a jury convicted her former brother-in-law of murdering her mother, brother and nephew in October 2008. Though Hudson's celebrity drew national media to the Chicago courthouse for the 13-day trial, she apparently had little effect on the jury. Several members told reporters that her name was rarely mentioned during deliberations. Their only conversation about her focused on her testimony and their opinion that it offered little help in reaching a verdict. "This was not for us the Jennifer Hudson case," juror Jacinta Gholston said. It was the People of Illinois vs. William Balfour. Balfour was convicted of fatally shooting Hudson's mother, Darnell Donerson, 57; her brother, Jason Hudson, 29; and her 7-year-old nephew, Julian King. Prosecutors alleged that Balfour was upset that his estranged wife, Hudson's sister, Julia, was seeing another man. Balfour, 31, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison because he was convicted of multiple murders. His attorney, Amy Thompson, said he would appeal, and she too downplayed the suggestion that Hudson's celebrity affected the trial. I think the jury was paying attention. They didn't seem too interested in the coming and goings of people in the courtroom, including Miss Hudson," she said. Hudson gained fame as a contestant on "American Idol" and made her film debut in 2006 in the musical "Dreamgirls," winning the Academy Award for best supporting actress. She did not immediately speak to reporters after leaving court. Hudson maintained a low profile during the three-week trial. She declined media interviews about the case and made no mention of it on social media. Except for the brief moments when she walked from the elevators to a private waiting area each day, Hudson did not mix with the public. Prosecutors planned it that way to keep their most famous - and sympathetic - witness away from the spotlight during the proceedings. They went to uncommon lengths to shield her, including driving her to the courthouse each morning and allowing her to enter through a back door out of view of photographers. Cook County State's Atty. Anita Alvarez said she spoke with an "emotional" Hudson and her sister after the verdict. Before the trial began, Hudson had informed prosecutors of her plans to attend the entire trial because she said her mother would have done the same if the situation were reversed. She said, 'This was my mother. If it were me [who was killed], my mother would be here every day. So I'm going to be here every day,'" Alvarez said. Hudson sat quietly in the courtroom gallery's fourth row each day with her fiance and did little to draw attention to herself, staring at the floor during upsetting testimony. Both she and her sister stayed out of the courtroom on several occasions when graphic crime scene images were shown to the jury. Still, Hudson provided one of the trial's most dramatic moments when she appeared as the prosecution's first witness. As she struggled to maintain her composure, she described how no one in the family wanted Julia Hudson to marry Balfour because of the way he treated her sister and Julian, who was Julia's son. Jurors deliberated a total of about 18 hours since Wednesday, and were sequestered in a hotel for two nights. Members described a disciplined deliberation process in which they voted whether each of the more than 80 witnesses called to the stand was credible. They also constructed a detailed timeline, using it to see whether Balfour's alibi matched his whereabouts on the day of the murders. The panel did not take its first straw poll until Friday morning - more than 13 hours into their discussion. The initial vote was 9 to 3 in favor of convicting. "Some of us tried our best to make him innocent, but the facts just weren't there," juror Tracie Austin said.