OC choose convicted of fatally capturing spouse faces sentencing

An Orange County Superior Courtroom choose was sentenced Wednesday to 35 years to life in jail for fatally capturing his spouse throughout a “drunken argument,” based on prosecutors.

Jeffrey Ferguson, 74, was convicted in April of fatally capturing his 65-year-old spouse, Sheryl, throughout a struggle over cash at their Anaheim Hills residence on Aug. 3, 2023, prosecutors stated in a written assertion.

Throughout his testimony, Ferguson admitted that he was an alcoholic and that he had been consuming that day. The couple had been married for 27 years.

Jurors convicted Ferguson on one felony rely of homicide and one felony enhancement of non-public use of a firearm, in addition to one felony enhancement of discharge of a firearm inflicting nice bodily damage and dying.

Ferguson was first placed on trial in March, however a mistrial was declared when the jury deadlocked on a cost of second-degree homicide. He was retried and convicted the next month.

Prosecutors say Ferguson and his spouse had been of their household room watching “Breaking Dangerous” once they started to quarrel.

“As an alternative of rendering help to his spouse, Sheryl, after capturing her as they sat of their lounge watching tv, Choose Jeffrey Ferguson, then 72, went outdoors and texted his court docket bailiff and clerk: ‘I simply misplaced it. I simply shot my spouse. I gained’t be in tomorrow. I shall be in custody. I’m so sorry,’” the district lawyer’s workplace stated in a written assertion launched following his conviction.

The couple’s son tackled his father to wrestle the gun away, and carried out CPR on his mom whereas being directed by emergency dispatchers, prosecutors stated.

Within the hours after the capturing, an inebriated Ferguson wished aloud in a police interview room for the dying penalty, demanded to be punched within the face and predicted that he would burn in hell, based on video prosecutors confirmed throughout trial. He agonized over the couple’s son, who had simply witnessed his mom’s violent dying, and vowed to not cheat the legislation with “subterfuge.”

“Convict my ass,” Ferguson muttered to an imaginary jury in a police interview room.

Dealing with an actual jury in a Santa Ana courtroom 18 months later, threatened with jail and the tip of his pension as a choose, a sober Ferguson forged his spouse’s dying as an accident and denied legal blame.

“We beloved one another rather a lot,” Ferguson testified. “We didn’t argue on a regular basis.”

Ferguson and his spouse had been having a well-known struggle that day. He instructed jurors that she was upset as a result of they’d despatched cash to his grown son from a earlier marriage, however had not acquired a thanks card.

The argument continued over dinner at a restaurant, the place he pointed his finger at her in imitation of a gun, making her so upset she left the desk.

Ferguson instructed jurors his gesture had not been one in all menace however of capitulation, a method of claiming, “You win.”

The quarrel continued again at residence. Their son, Phillip, instructed police he heard his mom say, “Why don’t you level an actual gun at me?” earlier than his father prolonged his arm and fired.

However Ferguson instructed jurors that isn’t what he heard his spouse say. As an alternative, he stated he heard: “Why don’t you set the true gun away from me?”

Ferguson stated he responded by unsnapping his ankle holster, eradicating his Glock, and making an attempt to place it on the espresso desk, as a result of “I simply needed to please her.” He stated he was lacking tendons in his proper arm.

“My arm failed,” he stated. “I acquired a capturing ache. … I used to be making an attempt to clutch it so it wouldn’t drop, and it fired. … She had a really shocked look on her face.”

His son tackled him and wrested the gun away.

“I used to be form of in shell shock,” Ferguson stated.

However jurors in the end didn’t purchase that testimony.

“The second he pulled the set off and killed his spouse Choose Jeffrey Ferguson knew he was similar to the violent criminals he has despatched to jail and left his son to desperately attempt to pump the life into his dying mom’s physique whereas he went outdoors to textual content his associates,” Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer stated in April. “This was not an accident. Ferguson was skilled to by no means level a gun at something he didn’t intend to destroy.”