SANTA ANA (CNS) – Attorneys are scheduled to make closing arguments Wednesday in the murder trial of an Orange County Superior Court judge accused of killing wife.
Jeffrey Ferguson, 74, is charged with murder with sentencing enhancements for discharge of a gun causing death and the personal use of a gun for the Aug. 3, 2023, death of his 65-year-old wife, Sheryl. Jurors will begin deliberating after closing arguments and will get to consider whether the shooting was second-degree murder or involuntary manslaughter if they do not acquit him.
Under cross-examination Tuesday from a prosecutor, Ferguson struggled to explain his claim that he accidentally fired the weapon in the couple’s Anaheim Hills home.
Ferguson testified Monday that when he reached over a coffee table to set the gun down he felt a “shooting pain” in his disabled shoulder, causing it to fall and as he attempted to regain control the gun went off and shot his wife.
Under at times intense questioning Tuesday from Senior Deputy District Attorney Seton Hunt, Ferguson tried to explain how he inadvertently triggered the Glock he had pulled out of his ankle holster. Ferguson testified that he saw an open space on a cluttered, knee-high coffee table between television remote controls, a potted plant and books where he felt he could place the gun safely.
He unholstered the gun and was holding it palm up with his finger on the slide above the trigger loop as he was stooping forward from a sitting position on a couch to place the gun down, he said.
Ferguson and his wife had been bickering after he got home from work that afternoon and continued the argument as they went to the El Cholo Mexican restaurant near their home where the judge made a gun gesture with his hand that offended her.
Just before the shooting, Ferguson said he thought he heard her tell him to put his gun away, which confused him initially, but then he went to do it to appease her. He said she made her own gun gesture with her hand and made a “pa-choo, pa-choo” sound like bullets firing.
“I was trying to do what she asked me to do,” he said. “I never pointed it in her direction.”
Hunt suggested Ferguson could have gone upstairs and put the gun away as he routinely did each night before going to bed.
“I could have done a lot of things,” Ferguson said.
Hunt peppered Ferguson with questions about the improbability of the experienced gun owner and veteran prosecutor and judge fumbling with a weapon and firing one shot that was fatal.
“You didn’t shoot it in your leg,” Hunt said.
“I wish I had,” he responded.
“Of all the places it could go, it was the person mocking you,” Hunt said.
“Yes,” he replied.
Hunt noted it took five pounds of pressure to pull the trigger on the gun as he was fumbling with it in mid-air.
“I didn’t put my finger on the trigger to pull it,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson said it was difficult to lean forward to place the gun on the coffee table because of his girth at the time. He weighed 100 pounds more the night of the shooting.
“I couldn’t lean too far forward because my stomach wouldn’t permit it,” he said, explaining why he was extending his shoulder, which was missing three of four tendons since 2015 surgery.
Hunt also asked the judge why he didn’t just clear the books or television remotes away before placing down the gun.
“There was already room” for the gun, he answered. He later said it didn’t occur to him to move the other items aside.
“I thought it would be safe,” he said.
At one point, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Eleanor Hunter got frustrated with Ferguson interrupting the prosecutor and sent jurors on a break to admonish the defendant.
“I’m going to order you to answer the questions and not add anything,” Hunter told the defendant.
“You have an amazing attorney,” who could help Ferguson add to his testimony later, Hunter said of the judge’s lawyer, Cameron Talley.
Hunt also asked Ferguson why he thought it was safe to hold the gun palm up with a plan to slide the gun out of his hand onto the table. He also asked the judge if it would have been safer to just let the gun fall on the floor.
Ferguson said he wasn’t aware of any gun training that suggested letting a weapon fall to the floor for safety reasons.
Under questioning from Talley, Ferguson said he was trying to place the gun in a spot on the table against the books that pointed away from his wife. If he placed it another way as the prosecutor suggested the magazine of the gun would have been heavy enough to tip it off the table, he said.
When Talley asked his client Monday if he meant to shoot his wife, Ferguson had responded, “No, absolutely not. It was an accident.”
The judge said that when he returned home from work the day of the shooting, he downed a 16-ounce beer and then a rum and Coke.
Ferguson did not recall drinking an old fashioned during a work lunch break at a local restaurant until Hunt showed him a receipt. Ferguson said when he did drink on a lunch break from work it was one once or twice a week and it was usually a gin and tonic.
That same afternoon he had posted a photo of his wife on his Facebook page
When asked if he was an alcoholic, the judge said, “I don’t think I thought so. I drank too much and was in denial so I suppose I was.”
He estimated he would drink three days of the week.
The trouble on the day of the shooting started when Sheryl Ferguson checked the mail and didn’t see an expected thank you card from her husband’s son from his prior marriage.
Kevin Ferguson, who was 37 at the time, had adopted a daughter who was a few months old earlier that summer and the judge, his wife and their son, Phillip, who was a senior at Southern Methodist University, visited them at their home in Highland Park.
The defendant and his wife would argue about financially aiding Kevin Ferguson, the judge testified.
“What annoyed her was he didn’t express his appreciation or gratitude,” Jeffrey Ferguson testified. “Sheryl (also) had hopes that Kevin and Phillip would have a stronger family bond … but Kevin never sent birthday cards to Phillip, or her or me … but he would ask us to send cards to his wife.”
So the dispute on the night of the shooting “was about not getting a thank you card” 10 days after Kevin Ferguson had received $2,000 from the couple and promised to send a card, the judge testified.
“I said, `I know, I know,”‘ Ferguson said. “She kept talking about it.”
Ferguson, his wife and younger son went out to eat at El Cholo and while there he ordered a margarita before dinner and then one with dinner, he said. The bickering continued, prompting the judge to eventually make a gun gesture with his hand that prompted his wife to storm out of the restaurant. He said he had made the gesture before in the past as if to say, “OK, you win.”
Sheryl Ferguson glanced over at the patrons at the table next to them and appeared to be embarrassed by the incident, the judge said.
Phillip Ferguson confronted his father, asking him why the two don’t get divorced, he said. The judge responded sarcastically, “Because I can’t afford it.”
When his wife returned to the table in five or 10 minutes she asked him to finish his drink so they could leave, he testified.
“I was talking to her, saying I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you and she said shut up,” Ferguson said.
He said he was attempting to “defuse” the tension.
“I just wanted to make nice and she said finish your margarita so we can go,” he said.
Sheryl Ferguson drove them home in the car he had bought for her a short time before the shooting.
Phillip Ferguson wanted to watch “Breaking Bad,” so they continued viewing the final episodes of the series in their family room.
As Ferguson continued to try to make amends during the show, his wife kept telling him she didn’t want to discuss it and cursed at him once as she said shut up, he said.
Ferguson, who acknowledged feeling the effects of the alcohol, said he thought he heard her say, “Why don’t you put that gun away from me.”
Hunt said in his opening statement that the defendant intentionally shot his wife with a gun he almost always carried in an ankle holster after she said something to the effect of “Why don’t you point a real gun at me?”
“I wanted to defuse it so I said, OK, I’ll get rid of it,” he said.
Ferguson, who weighed about 285 pounds at the time, struggled to get the gun out of his ankle holster to lay down on a coffee table, cluttered with a plant, a glass of Coke he was drinking and books.
To get the gun in front of the books he had to extend his arm, but he said that was difficult because he had lost three of four tendons in his shoulder.
“I was setting it down to the area behind the books,” he said. “I reached out to send the gun down … I could not reach the table with my elbow bent … My arm failed. I got a shooting pain and I reflexively grabbed it. I didn’t want it to hit the floor. My finger must have hit the trigger.”
The gunfire was “very loud,” he said.
“I looked over at Sheryl and she has a very surprised look on her face,” he said. “She actually stood up, turned and pivoted to the right and fell over.”
The judge did not recall her saying anything, but her son testified he heard her say, “He shot me.”
Phillip Ferguson tackled his father and demanded he release the gun, the judge testified.
“I said get off me,” and he released the gun.
The judge struggled to get up and was unsure what had just happened, he said.
“The first thing I said to him was `Don’t shoot me,”‘ he testified. “I figured he might shoot me because he saw his mother get shot. After that I said call 911.”
Ferguson said he went outside to call 911 himself to streamline the process of getting paramedics into the house. He said his years of experience in law enforcement taught him police would want to make sure the house is safe to enter first before paramedics could aid the victim, so he wanted to be outside to assure them it was safe to go in.
While waiting for first responders, Ferguson texted his clerk and bailiff, “I just lost it. Just shot my wife. I won’t be in tomorrow. I will be in custody. I’m so sorry.”
Ferguson said he sent the note because, “I was trying to grasp some mundane thing to get a grip on the reality. I was in shock, trying to grab onto something.”
When police arrived and ordered him on the ground he refused and even cursed them at one point because he feared that once he got down he wouldn’t be able to get back up. He told them to “throw me on my left side, not the right side” because of his sore shoulder.
Ferguson said he made multiple remarks with police when they brought him to the station such as “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, convict my ass” because, “I was overwhelmed by emotion, guilt and worried about my son. I felt terrible. I just felt like lock me up, throw away the key. I felt terrible.”
He lamented the state no longer follows through on capital punishment because he felt terrible about what happened, not because he was guilty of a crime, he said.
The prosecutor showed the judge multiple pictures of guns, some of which Ferguson recalled and others he did not. Some of the weapons belonged to his wife or son, he said.
When showed what appeared to be an automatic rifle on the top shelf of his closet, Ferguson said it was a plastic replica that he placed up on the top shelf two decades ago. Ferguson acknowledged he could shoot the gun with his arm crooked, but added not fully extended.
When asked if he was a skilled shooter, Ferguson said, “I was actually a lousy shot.”
Under questioning from Talley, Ferguson acknowledged it was wrong of him to carry the gun while drinking. He said he just got used to the ankle holster like one would a watch.
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