An Orange County ju umpire was stuck Monday on second-degree murder charges against a 74-year-old Superior Court judge who shot and killed his wife after hours of argument and heavy drinking.
After eight days of deliberation, the ju judge was split from 11 to 1 following Jeffrey Ferguson’s conviction.
Ferguson and his 65-year-old wife, Cheryl, had been quarreling money for hours when they removed the Glock from the holster at his ankle and fired a single bullet through the central section on August 3, 2023.
During his testimony he admitted that he was an alcoholic and was drinking that day. Prosecutors experts said Ferguson’s blood alcohol level was about twice the legal driving restrictions at the time of the shooting.
In the hours of the shootings and self-loathing, a drunken Ferguson hops to be the death penalty out loud, punched in his face and predicted he would burn in hell. He suffered from his 22-year-old son. He had just witnessed the violent death of his mother and vowed not to fool the law with a “diving.”
“Cured my ass,” Ferguson tweeted to an imaginary ju-decided member in the police interview room.
Faced with a real ju apprentice in Santa Ana’s courtroom 18 months later, threatened at the end of his pension as a prison and judge, the calm Ferguson cast the death of his wife as an accident, denying the criminal liability.
“We loved each other very much,” Ferguson testified. “We didn’t discuss it all the time.”
Defense attorney Cameron Tully uses fake guns as props during closing discussions at Judge Jeffrey Ferguson’s trial.
(Allen J. Scheven/Los Angeles Times)
Ferguson and his wife were in the familiar battle that day. He told the ju umpire that she was upset because they sent money to his grown son from his previous marriage, but had not received your card.
“What bothered her was that he didn’t express his gratitude or gratitude,” Ferguson testified. “10 days have passed and the card hasn’t arrived.”
The discussion continues dinner at El Choro Restaurant, where he imitates a gun and turns his fingers at her, making her very upset.
Ferguson told the ju umpire that his gesture was not one of the threats, but one of the surrenders, and a way to say, “You win.”
Back at home, the argument continued. Their son, Philip, told police when he heard his mother say, “Would you like to point a real gun at me?” Before his father stretches out his arms and fires.
However, Ferguson told the ju umpire he hadn’t heard his wife say it. Instead, he said he heard: “Why not try and keep the real gun away from me?”
Ferguson said he wasted the holster on his ankle, removed the Glock and responded by trying to put it on the coffee table because “I just wanted to please her.” He said he lacked a tendon in his right arm.
“My arm failed,” he said. “There was the pain of the shooting. …I was about to hold it tight. …She had a very surprised look on her face.”
His son tackled him and took his gun.
“I was like a shell shock,” Ferguson said.
Advanced proxy. Atty. Seton Hunt presents his final argument at the judge’s trial.
(Allen J. Scheven/Los Angeles Times)
Under cross-examination from the sub-ward. Atty. Seton Hunt, Ferguson admitted that he broke the law hundreds of times by drinking in public while armed.
Before his arrest, Ferguson presided over the courtroom at Fullerton Court. He testified that drinking at lunchtime is common.
“I always went for lunch with the judges,” Ferguson said.
“You have a lot of powerful friends, I understand that, sensei,” Hunt said.
The prosecutor asked him why he didn’t leave the room and remove the gun elsewhere.
“I did,” Ferguson said. “I should have it.”
At one point in Ferguson’s testimony, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Eleanor Hunter presides over the trial, suspending Ferguson and failing to answer questions directly because an Orange County judge rejected himself.
“You might want to control everything, but I’m not going to control it here,” Hunter said.
Ferguson, who was a prosecutor for 32 years before becoming a judge in 2015, testified that he wanted to save his son, Philip, who had just graduated from college. “That’s where the money goes,” he said. “He has no trajectory yet. I’m worried about him.”
He then added:
In his final argument, prosecutor Hunt described Ferguson’s explanation of the shooting as “nonsense” and “absurd.” He said it would make no sense for Cheryl Ferguson to ask her husband to clean up when he had already hidden the gun from sight.
“He lost his temper. He shot his wife. It’s that simple,” Hunt said. He told the ju umpire that one of the gun safety rules Ferguson taught his son was, “Never point the firearm to anything you’re not trying to destroy.”
He argued that Ferguson was a firearms expert and renewed his concealed carry permit 18 times but did not stop him from violating the terms of his drinking.
“He doesn’t think the rules apply to him,” Hunt said. “He’s a judge. He doesn’t care.”
Some people who worked with Ferguson, including his enforcement officer and his clerk, took the position of witnesses, saying he was a “peaceful” person. Defense attorney Cameron Tully said Ferguson had never been charged with a crime before and had no history of domestic violence.
“He wasn’t mad and he wasn’t mad that night,” Tully said.
One of the details that emerged at the trial was the fate of the chair Sheryl Ferguson was sitting at when he was shot. Ferguson said it remained in his family’s room.
“It was her chair,” Ferguson testified. “I didn’t want to let it go.”
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