The defense attorneys began their case Monday at the trial of an Orange County Judge accused of fatally shooting his wife in a family home in 2023.
Defendant, 74-year-old Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, a video showing him crying in the interrogation room, was played for the ju umpire before the defense began.
“It was an accidental discharge from hospital,” Ferguson’s defense attorney Cameron Tully said in an opening statement Monday.
Talley admitted that the judge and his wife were caught up in a heated debate at an Anaheim Hills restaurant the night she was killed, but he was the argument explained last week by prosecutor Seton Hunt. given some alternative interpretations of the
“At one point, the accused – in his rage, he made a fake gun move, as if he was shooting her,” Hunt said last week.
Ktla’s Chip Yost was listening when Talley explained the gun’s gesture differently.
“He said he had done a gun sign before, but it said, ‘You got me, touch, you win,'” Tally said.
Talley also had another explanation of how things unfolded when the couple got home later that night.
Last week, the prosecutor said: [his wife] “Why don’t you try using a real gun on me?”
Hunt said Ferguson pulled a gun from the ankle holster and shot and killed his wife.
But Talley said he heard Ferguson say, “Would you like to clean up a real gun for me?”
This led Talley to argue that he was trying to put the gun on the table when the judge “mistakes” left.
“He tells you his shoulders are crumbling, he gropes for the gun and he grabs it and leaps forward,” Tally explained. “And then he moves forward and grabs it, and he slides his fingers into the trigger loop and grabs him, bang!”
Click here to learn more about this trial last week.
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