Southern California judge who killed his wife is scheduled to be sentenced
Santa Ana, California – A judge in southern California found guilty of second degree murder for fatally killed his wife after the couple competed should be sentenced on Wednesday.
The judge of the Superior Court of the County of Orange, Jeffrey Ferguson, risks a maximum sentence of 40 years in life imprisonment. The 74 -year -old man has been imprisoned since a jury found him guilty in April of murder and improving criminal firearms.
The prosecutors said that the longtime judge and former criminal prosecutor had drawn a firearm from his ankle case in August 2023 and shot deadly after drinking and discussed with his wife for family finances; The argument started in a restaurant and continued later while watching “Breaking Bad” on television in their house in Anaheim Hills.
Ferguson, who chaired criminal affairs to his arrest, admitted to having shot his wife, Sheryl, but said it was an accident.
The case turned the County’s legal community where many know or worked with Ferguson for decades, including the district prosecutor Todd Spitzer. The county houses 3 million people between Los Angeles and San Diego.
To avoid a conflict of interest, the judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court, Eleanor J. Hunter, chaired the trial of Ferguson.
In March, an initial impasse of the jury on the case and Hunter declared a trial. In April, a second jury condemned Ferguson of second degree murder and improvements in firearms.
Frances Prizzia, Ferguson’s lawyer, asked for a new trial, saying that there was not enough time to prepare between the two trials and that a key witness was not available to testify a second time, which puts his client in a disadvantage.
“The refusal of the continuation court was an unreasonable and arbitrary insistence in excess in the face of a justifiable request for delay,” wrote Prizzia in court documents.
During the trial, the prosecutors said that Ferguson had drank before he made a gesture of the hand in the form of a weapon towards his 27 -year -old wife while arguing with her in a Mexican restaurant on August 3, 2023. The prosecutors said that the quarrel had continued at home while the couple looked at a real weapon with his adult son, Phillip and Sheryl Fergus to adults. He did, then reached the relaxation, the prosecutors said.
Ferguson, who had experience and training in firearms, testified that he withdrew the weapon of his ankle case to place it on a table cluttered with other objects when he stamped it because of an injured shoulder, and it took place.
Immediately after the shooting, Ferguson and his son called 911, and Ferguson sent an SMS to his clerk and his bailiff 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 a text message shown to the jurors.
Ferguson spoke with the police outside his home and in detention. In the video shown at the trial, he was seen by sobing and saying that his son and everyone would hate him, and plead for a jury to condemn him.
After the arrest of Ferguson, the authorities said they had found 47 weapons, including the weapon used in the shooting, and more than 26,000 ammunition cartridges at his home.
Ferguson began his legal career in the district prosecutor’s office in 1983 and worked on drugs, winning various prizes. He became a judge in 2015 and chaired criminal cases in the city of Orange County, Fullerton, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the court where he should be sentenced on Wednesday.
