Jennifer Hudson Family Murder Trial: Prosecutors focus on 7-year-old victim Julian King

(CBS/AP) CHICAGO - Prosecutors in the trial of William Balfour, the man accused of murdering members of Jennifer Hudson's family, are now expected to focus on the youngest victim, the Oscar-winner's 7-year-old nephew, Julian King.

In court Wednesday, prosecutors are likely to pick up where they left off with testimony about King's abduction and slaying.

Hudson's former brother-in-law, William Balfour, allegedly killed her mother and brother at their Chicago home, then drove off with Julian in an SUV. He supposedly shot him in the head behind a front seat.

A police officer testified about the frantic search for Hudson's nephew, Julian King, nicknamed "juice box," who was found in an SUV three days later. Prosecutors also played a surveillance video showing Balfour getting out of a car at a gas station near the Hudson house on Chicago's South Side before the killings. Prosecutors are trying to show he was in the area at the time, which Balfour has denied.

Tuesday, the prosecution showed jurors photographs of the bloodied bodies of Hudson's mother and brother. Hudson shut her eyes and held on to a spectators' bench as a police officer described coming across her family's bloodied bodies. Hudson left the courtroom before the grisly pictures were projected onto a screen.

Jennifer Hudson took the witness stand for about 30 minutes Monday in sometimes tearful testimony. Hudson, who was in Florida at the time of the shootings, testified that she was dismayed when she learned in 2006 that her sister was going to marry Balfour, whom she said she always disliked.

If convicted of at least two of the murder counts, Balfour would face a mandatory life sentence.

Complete coverage of the Hudson family murders on Crimesider