The closing debate began Wednesday morning at the murder trial of an Orange County judge accused of the death of his wife at the couple’s Anaheim Hills home.
Jeffrey Ferguson, 74, is charged with murder on August 3, 2023 with increased sentence for firearm discharge and personal use that caused the death of his 65-year-old wife Cheryl. The ju apprentice will begin deliberation after the discussion is completed.
They consider whether the shooting is a second-degree murder or an involuntary manslaughter if it doesn’t acquit him.
Under cross-examination from prosecutors on Tuesday, Ferguson struggled to explain his claim that he accidentally fired the weapon. Ferguson testified Monday that he arrived on the coffee table and placed the gun down, and felt the pain of the shooting in his disabled shoulder, dropped it and when he tried to get the gun back he recovered and shot his wife.
Asked intense questions Tuesday and fierce questions from Senior Deputy District Attorney Seton Hunt, Ferguson tried to explain how he inadvertently caused a Glock, which he pulled out of his ankle holster. Ferguson testified that he saw an open space on a messy knee-high coffee table between the TV remote, potted plants and books that he felt could safely place his gun.
An Orange County judge is facing murder charges after police say they shot and killed his wife in Anaheim Hills. Alex Rozier reported on the NBC4 News August 11, 2023.
He removed the gun and headed forward from the sitting position on the sofa to place the gun down, so he hugged his palm with his fingers on the slide above the trigger loop.
Ferguson and his wife had been in an argument that afternoon after they got home from work and when they went to a restaurant in El Choro Mexico near their home, they made gun gestures with the hand that the judge attacked her.
Just before the shooting, Ferguson said he thought he had heard her tell him to clean up his gun, which first confuses him, but he went to do it to soothe her. He said she made her own gun gestures with her hands, making “Pa-choo, pa-choo” sound like a bullet.
“I was trying to do what she asked me to do,” he said. “I never turned it in her direction.”
Hunt suggested that Ferguson could go upstairs and put away the gun.
“I might have done a lot,” Ferguson said.
When Attorney Cameron Tully asked his client on Monday if he was planning to shoot his wife, Ferguson replied, “No, it’s definitely not. It was an accident.”
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