Los Angeles (AP) – The jurors condemned a judge in southern California on Tuesday from the second degree murder for fatally killed his wife while the couple were arguing and watched television at home.
The judge of the Superior Court of the County of Orange, Jeffrey Ferguson, 74, was tried for the death in 2023 of his wife Sheryl, 65, in their home in Anaheim Hills. Ferguson Position In his own defense, admitting having shot his wife but saying it was an accident.
The jurors made their decision on Tuesday afternoon, one day after the start of the deliberations. After the verdict was read in court, Ferguson received a moment to kiss his son before being handcuffed and placed in police custody. He was also found guilty of an improvement in firearms for crime and risks a maximum prison sentence of 40 -year -old life when he was sentenced on June 13.
Ferguson’s lawyer Cameron Talley said the defense was planning to appeal.
“I respect the jury’s verdict,” said Talley. “At the same time, we all know that the juries do not always do things … I always believe in Jeff.”
The verdict comes after a dead end from the previous jury in March and that the judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court, Eleanor J. Hunter, said a trial. Hunter supervised the case to avoid a conflict of interest with the Superior Court in the County of Orange, where Ferguson presided over criminal affairs to the shooting.
The case had turned the county’s legal community, which houses 3 million people between Los Angeles and San Diego. Many have known or have been working with Ferguson for decades, including the Orange Todd Spitzer County District.
“There are no winners here,” Spitzer said at a press conference after the verdict. “Justice has been done, but I am very sad for the Ferguson family.”
Prosecutors said Ferguson had drunk before making a Pistol -shaped hand gesture Towards his 27 -year -old wife during an argument on family finances they had during dinner in a Mexican restaurant on August 3, 2023. The prosecutors said that the argument continued at home while the couple was watching “Breaking Bad” on television with their adult son, and Sheryl Ferguson disturbed her husband to point a real gun. He did, then reached the relaxation, the prosecutors said.
Ferguson testified that he withdrew the pistol from his ankle case to place it on a table, and tried it, and he was discharged.
Immediately after the shooting, Ferguson and his son both called 911, and Ferguson sent a text Saying, “I just lost it. I just shot my wife. I will not be tomorrow. I will be in detention. I’m really sorry ”, according to a copy of an SMS displayed to the jurors. His son Phillip testified to attack his father to fight against the weapon after the shooting and made the RCR on his mother.
Ferguson spoke with the police outside his home and again once he was in detention, and was seen on video by sobbing and saying that his son and everyone would hate him. In the video, he said he had killed his wife and pleaded for a jury to condemn him.
Authorities said they had found 47 weapons, including the gun used in the shooting, and more than 26,000 household ammunition cartridges, and said Ferguson had a lot of experience and training in firearms.
“It was not an accident. Ferguson was trained to never point a weapon on all that he did not intend to destroy,” Spitzer said in a statement on the verdict.
Ferguson was a long -standing prosecutor who became a judge in 2015. He began his legal career in the District Prosecutor’s Office in 1983 and continued with drug affairs, winning various prices.
Ferguson had been on bond of $ 2 million, but did not chair the court because the State Constitution prohibited a judge facing an accusation of crime of the hearing affairs.
