Ju judges who took into consideration the fate of an Orange County Superior Court judge accused of fatally shooting his wife at an Anaheim Hill home were unable to determine a potential second-degree murder charge on Monday.
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 apprentices began deliberations on Wednesday around 2:35pm, continuing on Thursday and Friday.
The panel could convict a judge of second-degree murder or involuntary manslaughter, or be completely acquitted of him.
At 2:09pm on Monday, the ju judge asked if he could see the entire interview that judge’s son, Philip Ferguson, had with police, but Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Eleanor Hunter instructed the ju judge who could look into only a portion of his statements included as evidence of the trial.
The ju umpire near the end of the day shows he is stuck on a second-degree murder charge. The ju judge is free to discuss both guilt in deliberations, but they must acquit him of second-degree murder before voting for the involuntary manslaughter first.
The ju-degree told Hunter that “several votes” votes were made in murder but did not identify how many people they had. They also showed that there was a “movement” in the deadlock.
Hunter instructed the ju judges to return Tuesday morning to consider whether additional assistance would be needed, such as more clarification from judges on the law, and more clarification, such as resuming the closure of debates from prosecutors and defense attorneys. Hunter told the lawyer that if the ju judges wanted more discussion, she would imagine each of them for about 10 minutes.
After the ju judge left that day, Hunter pointed out to the lawyer that she saw a nod in her head when she suggested further help, telling that one of the panelists could send questions to the judge as well as the front yard.
At 10:20am on Friday, the ju judge submitted the first memo asking legal questions about involuntary manslaughter.
“In regards to the (law relating to involuntary manslaughter law), the defendant illegally committed a “legal act.” “Defining legal conduct,” the ju apprentice asked.
Ju-searched, “Can I have some tissues?”
The ju judge was told that “legal conduct” was “not illegal.”
Towards the end of the day, the ju apprentice submitted another memo.
After consulting with a lawyer about the case, Hunter read the relevant laws regarding the question.
“You’ve been presented with evidence – reliable evidence – he took out the gun, he was mad.” “He took out the gun and pointed at her to kill her.”
“It’s a sad, tragic situation, but he (Ferguson) is still guilty of murder,” Hunt said.
Countering defence arguments that the shooting was a coincidence, Hunt “characterized the defendant as an experienced gun owner. … He had always had it for him.”
Ferguson “tells my son not to point in any direction you wouldn’t destroy,” Hunt said. “He was also a legal expert” ” On the bench as a prosecutor for 30-9 years.
“It puts him in a unique position as a defendant — he knows how to answer certain questions and avoid others,” Hunt said.
Hunt argued that the text message the judge sent to his enforcement and clerk minutes after the shooting was a “confession.” In a text message, Ferguson said, “I just lost it. I just shot my wife. There’s no tomorrow. I’m going to be detained. Sorry.”
“He’s explaining what he’s done,” Hunt said. “We all know what this means. He lost his temper and shot his wife.”
Hunt argued the most reliable explanation for the shooting that the defendant’s son, Philip Ferguson, gave to police shortly after it happened. Philip Ferguson’s testimony during trial was sometimes in conflict with what he said to police in separate interviews, including what happened after he met with defense investigators.
Prosecutors played part of their son’s phone to 911 when he told his father that he had shot and killed the dispatcher by the dispatcher following an ongoing debate “since dinner.”
Three Fergusons were at the restaurant on the night of the shooting, but Cheryl Ferguson broke through about 10 minutes after the defendant made a gun hand gesture during the conflict. Before filming at their home later, Philip Ferguson said, “Why not point a real gun at me?”
Hunt played a video of his son, whom he told police later.
The hunt was ridiculed as a “silly” Ferguson’s claim that his wife asked him to clear the gun that was pressed against his ankle, and placed it on a messy coffee table and groped it as he tried to get out of the hospital.
Philip Ferguson said his mother’s last words were “he shot me.”
“They said, ‘Oh, what an accident,'” Hunt said.
Prosecutors also challenged the judge’s claim that his disabled shoulder groped him for a gun, and said the defendant showed full use of his arm during police questioning.
Hunt said the gun needs five pounds of pressure to hold down the trigger. Hunt insisted that attacking a victim at a “center mass” while groping around in the air was a “slip dic.”
“His own story sets him for an implicit, malicious murder,” says Hunt, indicating that the way he says he is dealing with weapons is “consciously ignoring life.”
Ferguson’s blood alcohol concentration was 0.065% when measured seven hours after the shooting, Hunt said. Experts testified that the limit is about 0.17% of driving at the time of shooting, or nearly twice as high as driving, Hunt noted.
Ferguson’s lawyer, Cameron Tully, argued that the prosecution’s theory was “flawed due to a fundamental misunderstanding of how guns work.”
Talley pointed out how Hunt mentioned loading bullets into guns during the tests that weapons use magazines. Tully also said the bullet path disproves legal theory that Ferguson’s arm is bent at a 45-degree angle.
“I’m going to prove he’s innocent,” Tully said. “And I’m going to do that with the government witness.”
Tully pointed to one detective’s testimony about how far the casing from the gun projectile would go if the prosecutor was fired in the theorized way. However, Talley said he was found right next to the coffee table. This was consistent with the theory of accidental shooting.
Tully also claimed that the home surveillance video also showed no flashes at the muzzle.
The bullet fractured the victim’s abdomen “slightly to the left” and left the upper right side of his back.
Talley also claimed there was no evidence that his client was angry, but he said, he is trying to create peace and end the conflict.
“He’s not mad,” Tully said. “Where did this drunken anger come from?”
Tully accused him of trying to have both methods in two separate legal theories of malicious second-degree murder that were invented.
The defense attorney also said Hunt was offering a “backup position” for involuntary manslaughter.
“If it’s tacit malicious, then the text (the judge sent to his enforcer and clerk) is pointless,” Tully argued. “So you can’t be both. If he’s in drunken rage, it’s not intentional. So was it intentional?”
Tully also opposed criminal negligence and involuntary manslaughter charges that require “high risk of injury,” but he argued that there was no evidence of the case.
“Forensics is on the defense side, autopsy is on the defense side, science is on the defense side,” Tully said.
In his rebuttal, Hunt questioned Tully’s reliance on detective Anaheim’s testimony.
“He doesn’t rely on his client’s ridiculous defenses because it makes no sense,” Hunt said.
He also added that the bullet could bounce off, leaving a casing next to the coffee table, and was interrupted by the first responders who were trying to revive the victim as their first priority when the crime scene arrived at the scene.
Hunt argued that there is no way to know for certain by the angle at which the defendant fired the gun.
“I didn’t suggest he didn’t suffer a shoulder injury,” the prosecutor said. “I said there was no evidence that prevented him from having a gun.”
Ferguson and his wife were in an argument that afternoon after the judge went home from work and went to a restaurant in El Choro Mexico near her home, and then the judge continued to argue after making gun gestures at her.
Just before the shooting, Ferguson said he thought he had heard his wife tell him to clean up his gun.
“I was trying to do what she asked me to do,” he said. “I didn’t turn it in her direction.”
Hunt suggested that Ferguson could go upstairs and put away the gun.
“I might have done a lot,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson said it was difficult to lean forward to place the gun on the coffee table due to the girth of the time. He weighed over 100 pounds on the night of the filming.
“My stomach wouldn’t allow that so I couldn’t tilt it too far forward,” he said. He explained why he was stretching his shoulders.
The judge said when he returned home from work on the day of the shooting, he defeated 16 ounces of beer, as well as rum and coke. Ferguson couldn’t remember drinking an old-fashioned drink during his lunch break from work at a local restaurant until Hunt showed him a receipt. Ferguson said when he drank from work during lunch break it was once or twice a week, usually gin and tonic.
When asked if he was alcoholic, the judge said, “I don’t think so. I drank too much and I was in denying it, so I think it was.”
He estimated he would drink three days a week.
The troubles on the day of the shooting began when Cheryl Ferguson checked the mail and didn’t see the expected thank-you card from her husband’s son.
Kevin Ferguson, 37 at the time, adopted a daughter several months before that summer, and the judge, his wife and son, Philip, were seniors at Southern Methodist University, visited them at his Highland Park home.
The defendant and his wife will discuss financial support for Kevin Ferguson, the judge testified.
“What bothered her was that he didn’t express his gratitude or gratitude,” Jeffrey Ferguson testified. “Cheryl (also) wanted Kevin and Philip to have stronger family ties…but Kevin never sent Philip or her or me a birthday card…but he would ask us to send the card to his wife.”
So, 10 days after Kevin Ferguson made a promise to receive $2,000 from the couple and send the card, he testified that the night of the shooting was “not getting a thank you card.”
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