Orange County judge sentenced to 35 years to life for wife’s shooting death

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KESQ) - An Orange County Superior Court judge was sentenced today to 35 years to life in prison for fatally shooting his wife during a prolonged argument at their Anaheim Hills home.

Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, 74, was convicted in an April retrial of second-degree murder for killing 65-year-old Sheryl Ferguson on Aug. 3, 2023. Jurors also found true a sentence-enhancing gun allegation.

A previous jury deadlocked 11-1 in favor of a second-degree murder conviction, prompting the retrial.   

"I love my wife, Sheryl, with all my heart,'' Ferguson told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Eleanor Hunter, who sentenced the defendant to five years less than the maximum. She was brought in to oversee the case because of Ferguson's position on the Orange County bench.

Ferguson said he and his wife were looking forward to retirement in Texas to be closer to their son, Phillip.

"I understand the jury's verdict, but it was just a horrific accident,'' Ferguson said. "I have enormous grief not for myself, but for my son, Phillip, and Sheryl's brothers ... For me, Sheryl didn't just die once Aug. 3, 2023. She dies again and again every morning now when I wake up. There is nothing I can ever say or do, I know, that will ease my son's pain at losing a beautiful mom ... There's nothing I can say or do to heal the loss for Sheryl's brothers.''

Ferguson said his wife ``had a great and generous heart ... I wish God had taken me instead.''

Sheryl Ferguson's brother, Larry Rosen, made an impassioned and emotional plea to Judge Eleanor Hunter to reduce the punishment. He said he was convinced at first that his brother-in-law murdered his sister, but evidence from the first trial swayed him to believe it was an accident, as the defense contended.

Rosen said he took the defendant to the cemetery where his wife is buried.   

"I'm asking for Jeff to be exonerated,'' Rosen said. ``He's expressed extreme remorse.''

He turned to the defendant and said, ``I know in my heart you didn't intend to kill my sister.''

Another of the victim's brothers, Jeff Rosen, said ``losing her has left a hole in my heart I can never fill.''

He said he spoke with his sister by phone the day she was killed, and she complained that her husband would make a gun gesture to her during arguments -- the same gesture that triggered the argument leading to her death.   

Sheryl Ferguson told her brother that if her husband did it again, she would tell him to do it with a real gun next time, Jeff Rosen said.   

"Now I wish I had urged her not to say that,'' he said. ``I also believe he never intended to take Sheryl's life and it was a tragic accident.''   

The defendant's son, Phillip, said his parents would argue and that sometimes it would get ``heated,'' but they also ``laughed and loved together.''

Phillip Ferguson and his mother were concerned about the defendant's drinking problem.  

``They both often talked about spending more time together,'' Phillip Ferguson told Hunter. ``There was never a doubt to me they loved each other.''   

Phillip Ferguson said his father ``was loving and caring throughout my childhood.''

Phillip Ferguson said he was convinced ``My mother's death was accidental ... He is my father, a man who did his best to be a good dad and loving husband. I love my father. I love my mother. I hope to continue that as long as I possibly can.''

Ferguson asked to be held in the Orange County Jail during his appeal so he could remain close to family, prompting Hunter to scold him for feeling as if the rules don't apply to him. She cited multiple instances in which he broke the rules, including drinking alcohol while he was out on bail in the case.   The judge lamented that not much was said about the victim in the statements to her on Wednesday.

Before sentencing, Hunter denied a defense motion for a new trial. Defense attorneys Frances Prizzia and Cameron Talley had argued for a new trial, contending he received ineffective assistance of counsel based on the judge rushing to hold a retrial in just under a month, leaving them unprepared.

Talley said he had two other cases ready for trial besides Ferguson's. One ended in a plea deal, but he argued he was prepared to try the other until Orange County Superior Court Judge Terri Flynn-Peister barred him from doing so, saying he could not answer ready on two cases.

Talley called it a ``strange'' ruling that left him unprepared for the Ferguson retrial. Hunter refused to grant Talley a continuance despite his claims he didn't have a medical expert available to testify about the defendant's bum shoulder, which he argued led to an accidental shooting. He also did not have an expert available on the gunfire and had not lined up a "second chair'' attorney to assist him.

Talley said he even lacked a legal pad notebook.   

"I could only respond to what I knew at the time,'' Hunter said of Talley's availability for a retrial regarding the two other cases.   

Hunter, however, praised the defense attorneys and the case they presented for their client, but she said there were too many damning facts against the defendant.

"I think you were terrific in the first trial and even better in the second one,'' Hunter told Talley. She also praised Prizzia's opening statement in the retrial.

Hunter said a second chair in a trial is a ``luxury, not a right.''   

The judge also noted that the defense attorneys had years to line up medical experts on the shoulder injury and on the shooting. Also, she said, Ferguson never claimed during police questioning the night of the fatal shooting that it was an accident, Hunter said.

Hunter noted that during questioning Ferguson said the jury should "convict my ass,'' adding that as a judge and former prosecutor he understood his legal liability in the shooting.

She recounted how he went drinking at lunch the day of the shooting while on the job and returned home to drink some more. This was all a violation of his concealed carry permit, which he knew, she said.

"At the end of the day the facts are the facts in this case,'' Hunter said.  

"In this case, 23 jurors said the defendant was guilty -- only one said he was guilty of involuntary manslaughter,'' Hunter said.   

A mistrial in the first trial was declared March 10. Opening statements in the next trial were held April 14.

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer told reporters after the hearing that he was moved by Hunter's observation that the hearing did not focus much on the victim.

"This was always about Sheryl Ferguson,'' Spitzer said. "We were going to get justice for Sheryl.''

However, Spitzer said he understood the family's position.   

Seton Hunt, now a prosecutor in Riverside County, came back to his old job in Orange County for the day to finish off the case against Ferguson. Hunt acknowledged that it was ``unusual'' for a victim's family to side with a defendant, but, he added, ``people grieve in their own way. It's important their voices are heard and they have a right to their opinions.''   

Spitzer said Ferguson committed ``the ultimate act of domestic violence. You couldn't have put together a worse recipe for what happened (with the gun and the drinking).''

The county's top prosecutor said he knew Sheryl Ferguson for more than 30 years.  

``She was an incredible person,'' he said.   

He added that he believed Jeff Ferguson loved his wife.   

``But he killed her and it wasn't an accident.''   

Talley and Prizzia said they would appeal the verdict.   

Jeffrey Ferguson claimed the shooting was accidental, insisting the gun discharged when he fumbled while trying to set the weapon on a coffee table. He said his shoulder, which is missing three of four tendons, gave out while he was handling the weapon and it discharged.

In the trial, Hunt called the judge's story ``ludicrous,'' noting that the Glock handgun that Ferguson carried in an ankle holster required five pounds of pressure on the trigger to discharge, and was specifically designed not to fire when dropped.

Ferguson, who conceded having an alcohol problem, was drinking throughout the day and began arguing with his wife when he got home. Sheryl Ferguson became angry when she realized the judge's son from a previous marriage, Kevin, had not sent a thank you note as promised for money the couple gave him for child care for his daughter.

Her anger was exacerbated by the knowledge that Ferguson was not Kevin's biological father -- a fact that only publicly emerged during the retrial. The family learned of it in 2019.

The argument continued when the couple went out to dinner with their son Phillip. The argument escalated when the judge pointed at his wife with a gun-like gesture, prompting her to angrily walk out of the restaurant. She eventually returned, but the argument continued when the family returned home and continued their nightly ritual of watching ``Breaking Bad.''  

Prosecutors said that at one point during the argument, Sheryl Ferguson said something to the extent of ``Why don't you point a real gun at me?'' That prompted the judge to remove his Glock from his ankle holster and shoot her, prosecutors said.

The judge disputed that theory, saying he thought his wife said ``get that gun away from me,'' and he was trying to comply by removing it from the holster and setting it on a coffee table, but he fumbled it, causing it to discharge.

Talley argued that forensic evidence backed the judge's version of events, arguing that the bullet wound from the single gunshot indicated the angle of the weapon was pointing upward, which would be consistent with Ferguson's account of the accidental shooting.

Talley also argued that the location where the bullet cartridge landed also proves the point, since it would have been ejected further away instead of at the base of the coffee table if it had been fired directly at the victim, as the prosecution theorized.   

``It landed where it landed if he's telling the truth,'' Talley said.   

Talley noted that the judge posted a photo of his wife on his Facebook page before the shooting. And the two had made plans to buy a home in Texas to be closer to their son, who was attending his final semester at Southern Methodist University. He also advised his wife to buy some lottery tickets that morning.   

Ferguson sent a note to his courtroom bailiff and clerk outside the house after the shooting, saying, ``I just lost it. I just shot my wife. I won't be in tomorrow. I will be in custody. I'm so sorry.''