Jeffrey Ferguson sat outside his Anaheim Hills home, whispering his hands, muttering, angrily. He boasted about the glory of the past, put the offenders in prison, and lamented that his son always hated him.
It was August 3, 2023, and the 72-year-old Ferguson just shot his wife on a drinking night. They had been in the family room and watched the final season of “Breaking Bad” when he fired a round from a Glock .40-caliber pistol in a panoramic view of his son Phillip, 22. The bullet had entered the middle section of 65-year-old Sheryl Ferguson, and the back was extended high towards her back, through the chair behind her, lying on the wall.
Now Ferguson is sitting on a short ledge outside while the paramedics struggle and fail – saving her life. The officer emptied his pockets, and one of them asked, “Sir, what is your profession?”
After a long pause, Ferguson sighed and replied.
“I am a High Court judge.”
The exchange was captured on officers’ body cameras and served jurors this week in Santa Ana’s Orange County Superior Court, where Ferguson, 74, is on trial on murder charges. His defense attorney did not shoot Ferguson and kill his wife, but thought it was accidental.
Ferguson, a long-time prosecutor, gained “rich experience” in hidden carrying permits and guns before he became judge, Orange County attorney. Atti. Seton Hunt told jurors in his opening speech Wednesday. Hunter said Ferguson placed the Glock in a Velcro ankle hood and wore it in a “shower or sleeping” place. ” Hunter said.
He said Ferguson had a blood alcohol content of 0.17 at the time of the shooting, more than double the legal driving limit, drinking beer, rum and margarita in the first few hours.
Prosecutor Seton Hunt told jurors that Judge Jeffrey Ferguson had “a wealth of experience” on guns and regularly brought his Glock to Velcro ankle In the leather case.
(Frederick M. Brown / Pool Photo via AP)
“I killed her. The ladies and gentlemen of the jury, convicted my ass. I did. “I owe my son. …Convicted me. …Send me on the way. ”
Phillip Ferguson, son who witnessed the shooting, testified Wednesday that he attended Southern Methodist University in 2023 but was at home in Anaheim Hills with his parents that summer.
He said he knew his parents were going to argue, sometimes yelling when his father was drinking, but he didn’t remember they were fighting too much that summer. He said he had not witnessed his father’s previous violence against her.
But that night, Phillip Ferguson testified that his parents were keenly arguing about money, and the quarrel began at home and continued to have supper at El Cholo, where his father pointed at his index finger, Imitate guns.
The argument broke out again when they all came home and looked at “Breaking Bad” in the family room, and at one point he heard his mother say, “Why don’t you point a real gun at me?”
Phillip Ferguson said he turned around and saw his father reach out and shoot his mom.
“I jumped on or climbed over the edge of the sofa, grabbed my father’s wrist and fixed it to the ground,” he testified. “When I jumped over the sofa, I heard her say, ‘He shot.'”
The son called 911 and compressed his mother’s chest until the caregiver arrived. He said he had lived with his father since the shooting and they had modified their relationship.
He said his father took him to the shooting range before the shooting and directed him to carry out the gun safety. He recalled his father’s lesson: “Always point your weapon in a safe direction. Never point your gun at something you don’t intend to destroy. Never put your finger on the trigger unless you intend to use a weapon.”
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Eleanor Hunter presided over Ferguson’s murder trial as his judge in the Orange County Superior Court withdrew himself.
(Frederick M. Brown / Pool Photo via AP)
Ferguson’s defense attorneys gave up their right to open the story, and it remains to be seen how they will prove that the shooting was accidental. Doing so may require the defendant to testify. It would be risky in part because Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Eleanor Hunter presided over the case because the Orange County judge withdrew himself, warning Ferguson that he might be on him with her Previous transactions were interrogated.
Last year, Hunter ruled that Ferguson had lied about it while awaiting trial (violating his bail terms). She laughed at his claim that he used cortisol cream instead of alcohol to activate his ankle display and doubled the bail to $2 million.
“You lied at a previous hearing,” the judge told him at this week’s pre-trial hearing. The judge said it was “ecstasy” and “maturity cross-examination.”
Defense attorney Cameron Talley said such a question was “so incredible bias and requires crime.”
At the same hearing, Talley revealed that the fact that Ferguson still had a chair with bullet holes on it and left it in his living room seemed shocking.
“Is it still in his living room?” she asked.
“Yes, your honor,” Talley said.
Ferguson, who has been in court in Fullerton until his arrest, still earns more than $220,000 a year and benefits over $220,000, but is no longer a hearing case.
Minutes after the shooting, as reflected in the video of the officer’s human camera, Ferguson sat outside his home on Canyon Vista Drive, crying, blaming himself and repeatedly asking his wife if Dead.
“I owe my son. … Convict me. … Send me on the way.” Ferguson told police in a video shared with the juror in the murder case.
(Damian Dovarganes/AP)
“I never had the craziest dream I’d be sitting in front of a handcuffed house,” he said.
An official asked him how long he had been a judge.
“Nine years,” Ferguson said.
Before that?
“I am the deputy district attorney for 32 mothers,” the judge said, boasting that he prosecuted members of the Mexican Mafia, a prison gang; and the Vagos motorcycle gang.
“After all, I’m like them now,” he said. “My son will hate me. …My son.”
A military officer told Ferguson that his wife was dead half an hour after the shooting. Ferguson said he wanted his son to slap him in the face.
“I deserve it. …What is he going to do now?” he said.
Ferguson had another idea about the police before being taken to the squad’s car.
“By the way, you’re here very late.” “That’s not your fault.”
Testimony is expected to continue on Monday.
