Oscar-Award-winning actress Jennifer Hudson’s brother-in-law pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges he shot to death her mother and brother and the 7-year-old nephew. Twenty-seven-year-old William Balfour, who is married to Jennifer Hudson’s sister, Julia Hudson, is charged with killing his sisters’ mother, Darnell Donerson, their brother, Jason Hudson, and Julia Hudson’s 7-year-old son, Julian King. Read the rest here.

Killer of T.I.’s assistant could get life sentence. A 35-year-old man has been convicted of killing rapper T.I.’s assistant in 2006. Hosea Thomas faces 20 years to life in prison after the freeway murder of Philant Johnson following an earlier beef at an Ohio club. Thomas was reportedly hit with a bottle in the incident and he and his brother chased down two of T.I.’s vans, seeking revenge. Thomas’ brother Padron Thomas will receive a lesser sentence in the incident after testifying that his sibling fired the fatal shot that hit Johnson in the temple.

South African teen killer is sentenced. The White South African teen who went on a shooting spree that killed four people in a Black neighborhood was sentenced to four life terms in prison Friday, reports CNN. Two adults and two children, one three months old, the other 10 years old, were murdered during the spree, while the teen reportedly shouted racist slurs. Johan Nel was sentenced to 68 years for 11 counts of attempted murder, five years for possessing a firearm and three years for possessing ammunition, said Nell’s attorney, Frikkie Pretorius.  “I respect the court’s decision, [but] we are going to appeal,” Pretorius told CNN. “We believe there is a possibility that the court made a mistake.” Nel, who is now 19 but was 18 when he committed the crimes, confessed and pleaded guilty to the killings, so he wouldn’t have to stand trial, he said. But there were “compelling circumstances” the court didn’t consider, Pertorius said. The fact that Nel was home-schooled and didn’t learn how to socialize with Black children played a role in the crime, he said. A psychologist examined Nel and found he’s competent to stand trial, though. And the Congress of South African Trade Unions agreed with the sentencing. “No lesser sentence could possibly have been given for such an appalling crime, motivated purely by racist obsessions, for which there can be absolutely no mitigating circumstances,” a spokesman for the group said in a written statement. “COSATU agrees with the judge that there is no place for racially motivated violence in a democratic South Africa,” he said. The judge and prosecutor reportedly got death threats from people who hoped to stop them from giving Nel life sentences.
MTV holds its first African awards ceremony. MTV held its first award ceremony dedicated to Africans this weekend, reports the BBC. The MTV Africa Music Awards (the MAMAs) were held in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, and Nigerians dominated, winning six out of the 10 awards. Nigerian rapper D’banj won the artist of the year award and best male award; another Nigerian rapper, Naeto C won best new act; and 9ice took home the best hip-hop award. A Kenyan singer, Wahu, won the award for best female act. American acts, such as Rapper The Game, Flo-rida and singer Kelly Rowland hit the stage to perform during the ceremony. And U.S. artists, such as Lil Wayne and Alicia Keys, were also nominated in different categories, even though it was an African ceremony. The legend award went to Fela Kuti, the late Nigerian who spearheaded the Afrobeat movement. Kuti’s children accepted the award in his honor. “We’ll keep it in our house, and when the time comes then we’ll take it to him,” they said. The late South African singer Miriam Makeba, “Mama Africa,” was also honored during the ceremony. Winners of the awards were selected by fans who sent text messages.

Here are the top five child-friendly African countries. As media reports show, children often end up being the biggest victims in many of Africa’s conflict-ridden nations. But in some African nations, TV news reports are the closest kids will get to war and fighting. A report released by the African Child Policy Forum Thursday ranked the top African countries for “child friendliness” reports CNN. The top five were Mauritius, Namibia, Tunisia, Libya and Morocco; the bottom five were Sao Tome and Principe, Gambia, Central African Republic, Eritrea and Guinea Bissau. Health care and education were among the 40 indicators the group used in the ranking. “Governments that have come out well on this index did so because they have done two things – they have put in place the relevant laws to protect children from abuse and exploitation, and they have targeted resources at the basic needs of children,” an adviser to the Ethiopia-based group said. Policies to protect children, not the nation’s wealth, were considered in the ranking. Some of the poorest nations ranked high because of their laws protecting children.

South African killer will be sentenced. The White South African teen who admitted earlier this week to killing four Black people (including two children) during a horrific shooting spree in January, will now face sentencing, reports the BBC. Johan Nel, 18, shouted racist slurs while he fired on the Black settlement killing two adults, a 10-year-old boy and a three-month-old baby, say witnesses. Thousands participated in fiery protests demanding Nel get life in prison for the murders. Nel was upset by the attacks by criminals, he told the court. A psychologist, Kobus Truter, found that Nel is mentally fit to stand trial and that he should be sentenced to between 20 and 25 years in prison. Nel thought Whites were being targeted for attack, when his family and friends were victimized by violent criminals, Truter said. Nel was charged with 11 counts of attempted murder, and with the four murders as a result of the spree.

LA authorities offer $500,000 for info on serial killer. Somebody’s killing a lot of Black people in Los Angeles, and authorities are offering a half-million to anyone who can help them catch the murderer. The killings, which date back to 1985, occurred during two separate periods in the same South Los Angeles neighborhood, according to police. Many of the women are believed to have been prostitutes, police say. Ballistics reports show that seven women and a man were slain by the same weapon between 1985 and 1988. The women had been raped and dumped in the same alley, police say. On Wednesday, the City Council approved the $500,000 reward, proposed by Councilman Bernard Parks, an African American. Parks was the Los Angeles Police Chief in 2001 who ordered his department to investigate the unsolved murder cases. Porter Alexander, whose youngest daughter, Alicia Monique Alexander, was the last known victim in the first round of killings, told The Associated Press that he never saw her again after she left for a quick trip to the store in September 1988. “I said make sure you go to the store and come back. She says, ‘OK,’” Porter Alexander said. “She left, and that was the last time I saw my baby.” Four days later, police found the body of the 18-year-old in a nearby alley with a gunshot wound in the chest, according to AP. It took 13 years before the next related case. “What accounted for that gap, we still don’t know,” police Capt. Denis Cremins said at a news conference Wednesday. “We try not to engage in conjecture.” In March 2002, Princess Berthomieux was found beaten and strangled in an alley in the city of Inglewood. DNA samples linked her to the suspect in the earlier murders, AP reports. The next year marked another killing. Most recently was the 2007 murder of Janecia Peters, a 25-year-old who was shot to death and found in a garbage bag in an alley. Only one description of the so-called “Grim Sleeper” exists. A victim who survived a 1988 attack described her attacker as a Black man in his 30s, driving an orange Pinto, according to AP. “But that’s one person’s account who was traumatized,” Cremins said.

Md. Lawmakers skeptical about new DNA law. Members of the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus are skeptical about a new law that permits authorities to collect DNA samples from suspects charged with anything from a violent crime, such as murder or rape, to a burglary. But caucus members, joined by the American Civil Liberties Union, are concerned that the DNA gatherers are not being properly monitored. The members say that when they negotiated with the governor to enact the law, he guaranteed certain protections to ensure that DNA would not be mishandled, and that samples would be destroyed and records expunged when appropriate. The Baltimore County Crime Lab, the State Police Crime Lab and the Baltimore City crime lab have all had serious problems over the past decade when it comes to handling DNA evidence. Maryland Sen. Delores Goodwin Kelley of Baltimore County is one of the lawmakers who says the law is flawed. But Assistant Attorney General Sharon Benzil contends that “if the law is sort of the blue print, then the regulations are the instruction manual that provides the specifics to the local jurisdiction about how, when, where and what the law requires.”