An Orange County Superior Court judge who shot and killed his wife admitted during testimony on Tuesday, Feb. 25, to repeatedly breaking the law by carrying a concealed weapon while drinking alcohol, including during lunch breaks before hearing criminal cases.
He continued to say that the shooting was accidental.
A day after Jeffrey Ferguson testified to accidentally shooting and killing his wife at their Anaheim Hills home on Aug. 3, 2023, when his injured shoulder gave out and he fumbled a firearm, he continually denied being criminally responsible for the death of Sheryl Ferguson during several hours of intense questioning by a prosecutor.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Seton Hunt told jurors last week that during a heated argument between the drunken judge and his wife, Jeffrey Ferguson pointed a finger at her to mimic a firearm, she said something to the effect of “Why don’t you use a real gun?”, and the judge pulled a Glock .40-caliber pistol out of his ankle holster and shot his wife.
But Ferguson told jurors in a Santa Ana courtroom that his wife actually said something like, “Why don’t you put the real gun away for me?” and then made her own “finger-gun” motion at him, making “Pshew! Pshew!” sounds to apparently mimic gunfire. Ferguson described his bad shoulder giving out as he tried to place the gun on a coffee table, causing him to fumble the firearm and accidentally hit the trigger.
“My intention was to remove it from my person so she could see I didn’t have it anymore,” Ferguson said on Tuesday of the gun. “I just wanted to please her.”
“You were just trying to be nice to her?” the prosecutor asked.
“Yes.”
“By taking a gun out of a holster when you are drunk and pointing it in her direction?”
“I never pointed it in her direction,” the judge said.
Hunt noted that the one time the judge said the firearm misfired, it hit his wife: “Of all places, it shot the person who had just been mocking you by making gun sounds?”
“It hit her, yes,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson’s attorney acknowledged that the judge is an alcoholic, and under questioning by the prosecutor Ferguson admitted to breaking the law repeatedly by drinking while carrying a concealed weapon. The judge had a concealed-carry permit — which bars people from carrying a firearm while consuming alcohol — since the mid-1980s, when he was a young prosecutor. Ferguson acknowledge that he was inebriated at the time of the shooting.
“Would you agree that handling a firearm while under the influence of alcohol is an inherently dangerous act?” Hunt asked.
“I think it depends on the surrounding circumstances,” Ferguson said. “I don’t think it is a good idea. But whether it is inherently dangerous depends on the circumstances.”
“What if you had a bad shoulder? Would it be dangerous to handle a firearm while under the influence of alcohol?”
“Yes, it is probably a bad idea.”
“Would it be dangerous to human life?”
“I think it would depend on the circumstances.”
Ferguson testified that he was so used to carrying the firearm — which he only took off to shower or to sleep — that he stopped thinking about it. During testimony on Monday he compared it to wearing a watch.
“Except a watch can’t kill a person,” the prosecutor said.
“Unless it is a James Bond movie, yes,” Ferguson responded.
Ferguson acknowledged he had a cocktail at lunch — an old fashioned — the day of the shooting, something he admitted doing once or twice a week before going back to work and hearing criminal cases.
“Did you ever consume alcohol at lunch before presiding over a trial?” Hunt asked.
“No, I went to lunch with judges mostly,” Ferguson said.
“I understand — you have a lot of powerful friends,” the prosecutor responded, drawing a quick objection from the defense.
After realizing his wife had been struck by the gunfire, Ferguson immediately went to the front yard. He testified that he left the home so paramedics could immediately tend to his wife, rather than wait for officers to search for a shooter. But he acknowledged that he left his then-22-year-old son — who had wrestled the firearm away from his father and then called 911 — to perform CPR on Sheryl Ferguson.
“You left your son with a gun in one hand, a cellphone in the other, and his dying mother on the ground?” Hunt said.
“Yes,” Ferguson said.
Immediately after the shooting, prosecutors say, Ferguson texted his courtroom clerk and bailiff, telling them: “I just lost it. I just shot my wife. I won’t be in tomorrow. I will be in custody. I’m so sorry.”
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Eleanor J. Hunter, who is presiding over the trial to avoid a conflict of interest with Ferguson’s Orange County judicial colleagues, repeatedly warned Ferguson to answer only the questions he is asked.
“While you may want to control everything, you can’t control it in here,” Judge Hunter told Ferguson at one point while the jury was on a break.
Ferguson, who has at times wept during the trial, was warned by Judge Hunter to not display emotions on the stand. During his testimony, Ferguson denied the prosecution’s implication that he was crying to manipulate the jury.
“I love Sheryl,” Ferguson said. “We did everything together. And I miss her. I hate this happened. I hate this happened to my son. I cry for him. I cry for myself. Because she is gone and I don’t have much to be around for, except my son. I can’t help it, I’m sorry.”
Closing arguments in the trial are scheduled for Wednesday morning, Feb. 26, followed by jury deliberations. The prosecution is expected to ask for a second-degree murder conviction, while Ferguson’s defense attorneys have indicated they will ask the jury to acquit him of all criminal charges.