By Sean Emery and Tony Saavedra, Southern California News Group
A California judge accused of killing his wife in their house found himself in an unfamiliar court setting on Tuesday, Aug. 15 — standing before a Los Angeles County judge and pleading not guilty to a murder charge for a slaying his attorneys say was an accident.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson made his plea through his attorneys before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ricardo Ocampo, who granted Orange County prosecutors’ requests that Ferguson wear a GPS monitoring device, stay away from alcohol and submit to searches as conditions of his $1 million bail.
Ocampo rejected a request by prosecutors for Ferguson to not have any contact with his 22-year-old son, who authorities say witnessed the killing. Ocampo said such contact was up to the son.
Wearing a gray suit, white shirt and a blue tie, Ferguson sat quietly at the back of the courtroom until his case was called. He said little until asked by Ocampo if he understood the new conditions of his bail.
“Yes, I do, your honor,” Ferguson said.
At one point, Ferguson glanced back toward the first row of the courtroom gallery, making eye contact with one of his wife’s brothers, Larry Rosen, who later described that moment as “hell.”
“I busted down in tears,” Rosen later said, still struggling with emotion as he recalled the moment. “This is really hard.”
After the brief hearing, Ferguson’s attorneys Paul Meyer and John Barnett called the shooting “accidental” and “unintentional.”
“We are confident that when a jury from Orange County hears these facts they will agree with us, this was an unintentional discharge of a firearm,” said Barnett, standing before a bank of cameras outside the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center. “There was no intent to kill, no malice and they will find him not guilty.”
A tentative date for the preliminary hearing was set for Oct. 30 in Los Angeles. The case has been assigned to a Los Angeles judge to avoid a conflict of interest with Ferguson’s Orange County colleagues. The Orange County prosecutors assigned to the case declined to stop and talk with reporters after the hearing.
Ferguson, 72, was arrested Aug. 3 shortly after fatally shooting his wife, Sheryl, at their Anaheim Hills, California, home with a Glock 40-caliber pistol that he pulled from his ankle holster, authorities say. Prosecutors allege the couple had been arguing that night and Ferguson had earlier pointed a finger at her, mimicking a gun.
Moments before the shooting, according to documents filed by prosecutors, Sheryl Ferguson told the judge, “Why don’t you point a real gun at me?”
Jeffrey Ferguson is accused of firing one shot at close range, hitting his 65-year-old wife in the chest. The couple’s adult son witnessed the shooting and attempted CPR on his mother, authorities say, before calling 911. Prosecutors said Ferguson texted his Fullerton court staff: “I just lost it. I just shot my wife. I won’t be in tomorrow. I will be in custody. I’m so sorry.”
‘I just lost it,’ OC judge texts his court staff, prosecutors say. ‘I just shot my wife’
After Anaheim police arrived, Ferguson, smelling of alcohol and still wearing his now-empty ankle holster, told officers: “What the (expletive) did I … well, I guess I’m done for a while… Oh my God. … My son. … My son. … (Expletive) me. … What an (expletive) I am, Jesus Christ. I’m sorry. … I (expletive) up. … Oh man, I can’t believe I did this,” prosecutors say.
After spending a night in jail, Ferguson was released on $1 million bail. Ferguson has no criminal record.
While searching the Ferguson’s two-story house, investigators seized 47 legal firearms and more than 26,000 rounds of ammunition, including what they believe is the murder weapon, police said. A single, spent .40 casing was found near a couch.
Around seven hours after the shooting, a blood sample taken from Ferguson showed the judge had a blood-alcohol level of 0.06 percent, according to prosecutors. The limit by which an individual is considered too intoxicated to drive is 0.08 percent.
The son told investigators that he had never previously witnessed domestic violence between his parents but had seen many arguments, prosecutors say, with the son adding his father “tends to be more heated when he drinks.”
The son also told investigators about two previous incidents involving his father and firearms, prosecutors wrote, both of which his mother had reportedly told him about: Several years prior, the judge placed a gun to his head, and his wife “talked him out of suicide,” prosecutors wrote. On another occasion, the judge fired a gun while alone in a bathroom at the home, which the son believed was an “accidental discharge.”
Ferguson was a longtime prosecutor with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office before he was elected as a judge in 2015.
A memorial for Sheryl Ferguson was held on Sunday, drawing a capacity crowd of supporters at an synagogue in Orange County, the brother said, with a private burial for family members held in Los Angeles County on Monday.
“My sister was a wonderful person, very caring, very selfless,” Larry Rosen said. “The family is absolutely in shock. She is going to be missed dearly. I would describe what is happening as a tragedy.”
Rosen, speaking publicly for the first time, outside the Los Angeles courthouse on Tuesday morning, described Sheryl Ferguson — the sole sister among five siblings — as “the glue that held the family together.”
He came to the hearing to “be a face for my sister.”
The brother declined to comment on whether he believed the defense argument that the killing was an accident or about any potential issues in the Ferguson marriage, saying he was leaving those questions for the police and prosecutors.
Rosen said his family’s main concern right now is being there for the son who prosecutors say witnessed the shooting.
“It is tragedy for me, I can’t even fathom what he is going through,” Rosen said. “As a family we are focused on one thing: making sure he is protected and has support.”