Santa Anna, California – Southern California judge convicted From the second degree killing to shoot his deadly wife after he was scheduled to be sentenced to Wednesday.
The Urange Jeffrey Ferguson Provincial Judge faces a potential prison sentence for 40 years in prison. The 74 -year -old has been imprisoned since the jury was convicted in April of Criminal improvement.
Prosecutors said that the judge for a long time and the former criminal prosecutor withdrew a weapon from the ankle portfolio in August 2023 and shot dead after he was drinking and arguing with his wife on the family resources; The argument began in a restaurant and later continued while watching “Breaking Bad” on TV on their house.
Ferguson, who headed the criminal cases until his arrest, admitted that his wife, Sherrill, was shot, but he said it was an accident.
A case wandered into the legal community in Orange County, where many knew or worked with Ferguson for decades, including provincial lawyer Todd Spice. The boycott is home to 3 million people between Los Angeles and San Diego.
To avoid conflicts of interests, he presided over the Los Angeles Eleanor Judge. Hunter is the trial of Ferguson.
In March, a first jury body Blocked In the case, Hunter announced a trial. In April, a second jury was convicted of Ferguson for second -degree murder and weapons improvement.
Ferguson’s lawyer, Francis, is asking a new trial, saying that there was not enough time to prepare between the two experiences and that the main witness was not available for the second time, and put its client in a non -favorable position.
“The court’s denial of continuing an unreasonable and arbitrary insistence on the defects in the face of a justified request for delay,” Beriza wrote in the court’s files.
During the trial, prosecutors said that Ferguson was drinking before he made a Hand -like gesture Towards his 27 -year -old wife while he was arguing with her in a Mexican Restaurant on August 3, 2023. Prosecutors said that the fight continued at home while the couple was watching TV with their adult son Philip, and Sherrill Ferguson challenged her husband to direct a real pistol on her. The prosecutors said that he, then pulled the trigger.
Ferguson, who had experience and training in firearms, witnessed that he was removing the gun from the ankle portfolio to put it on a table saturated with other things when it was floundered by a injured shoulder, and exploded.
Immediately after the shooting, Ferguson and his son called the number 911, and Ferguson sent a text message to the court writer and Parawif He said: “I just lost it. I just shot my wife. I will not be tomorrow. I will be in reservation. I am very sorry,” according to a copy of a text message that appears to the jurists.
Ferguson spoke to the police outside his home and during the reservation. In the video that was shown in the trial, he was seen crying and saying his son and everyone hates him, and pleads with the jury to convict him.
After the arrest of Ferguson, the authorities said they had found 47 weapons, including the gun used to shoot, and more than 26,000 rounds of ammunition at his home.
Ferguson began his legal career in the provincial prosecutor’s office in 1983 and continued to work in drug cases, and won various prizes. He became a judge in 2015 and headed criminal cases in the city of Orange County in Volveron, about 10 miles (16 km) from the court, as he is scheduled to be sentenced to Wednesday.