An Orange County Superior Court judge testified Monday that he did not intend to fatally shoot his wife and that the gun was accidentally triggered.
Jeffrey Ferguson, 74, is charged with murder with sentencing enhancements for discharge of a gun causing death and the personal use of a gun for the Aug. 3, 2023, death of his 65-year-old wife, Sheryl.
When Ferguson’s attorney, Cameron Talley, asked his client if he meant to shoot his wife, Ferguson responded, “No, absolutely not. It was an accident.”
When the judge got home from work the day of the shooting, he said he downed a 16-ounce beer and then a rum and Coke. That same afternoon he had posted a photo of his wife on his Facebook page
When asked if he was an alcoholic, the judge said, “I don’t think I thought so. I drank too much and was in denial so I suppose I was.”
He estimated he would drink three days of the week.
The trouble on the day of the shooting started when Sheryl Ferguson checked the mail and didn’t see an expected thank you card from her husband’s son from his prior marriage.
Kevin Ferguson, who was 37 at the time, had adopted a daughter who was a few months old earlier that summer and the judge, his wife and their son, Phillip, who was a senior at Southern Methodist University, visited them at their home in Highland Park.
The defendant and his wife would argue about financially aiding Kevin Ferguson, the judge testified.
“What annoyed her was he didn’t express his appreciation or gratitude,” Jeffrey Ferguson testified. “Sheryl (also) had hopes that Kevin and Phillip would have a stronger family bond… but Kevin never sent birthday cards to Phillip, or her or me… but he would ask us to send cards to his wife.”
So the dispute on the night of the shooting “was about not getting a thank you card,” Ferguson said.
After sending $2,000 to Kevin Ferguson he promised to send a thank you card and it was 10 days later and that irked the victim, the judge testified.
“I said, `I know, I know,’ ” Ferguson said. “She kept talking about it.”
Ferguson, his wife and younger son went out to eat at an El Cholo restaurant and while there he ordered a margarita before dinner and then one with dinner, he said. The bickering continued, prompting the judge to eventually make a gun gesture with his hand that prompted his wife to storm out of the restaurant. He said he had made the gesture before in the past as if to say, “OK, you win.”
Sheryl Ferguson glanced over at the patrons at the table next to them and appeared to be embarrassed by the incident, the judge said.
Phillip Ferguson confronted his father, asking him why the two don’t get divorced, he said. The judge responded sarcastically, “Because I can’t afford it.”
When his wife returned to the table in five or 10 minutes she asked him to finish his drink so they could leave, he testified.
“I was talking to her, saying I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you and she said shut up,” Ferguson said.
He said he was attempting to “defuse” the tension.
“I just wanted to make nice and she said finish your margarita so we can go,” he said.
Sheryl Ferguson drove them home in the car he had bought for her a short time before the shooting.
Phillip Ferguson wanted to watch “Breaking Bad,” so they continued viewing the final episodes of the series in their family room.
As Ferguson continued to try to make amends during the show, his wife kept telling him she didn’t want to discuss it and cursed at him once as she said shut up, he said.
“I was saying sorry, don’t be mad, general stuff like that,” he said.
Ferguson, who acknowledged feeling the effects of the alcohol, said he thought he heard her say, “Why don’t you put that gun away from me.”
Senior Deputy District Attorney Seton Hunt said in his opening statement of the trial earlier that the defendant intentionally shot his wife with a gun he almost always carried in an ankle holster after she said something to the effect of “Why don’t you point a real gun at me?”
“I wanted to defuse it so I said, OK, I’ll get rid of it,” he said.
Ferguson, who weighed about 285 pounds at the time and has shed about 100 pounds since then, struggled to get the gun out of his ankle holster to lay down on a coffee table, cluttered with a plant, a glass of Coke he was drinking and books.
To get the gun in front of the books he had to extend his arm, but he said that was difficult because he had lost three of four tendons in his shoulder.
“I was setting it down to the area behind the books,” he said. “I reached out to send the gun down… I could not reach the table with my elbow bent… My arm failed. I got a shooting pain and I reflexively grabbed it. I didn’t want it to hit the floor. My finger must have hit the trigger.”
The gunfire was “very loud,” he said.
“I looked over at Sheryl and she has a very surprised look on her face,” he said. “She actually stood up, turned and pivoted to the right and fell over.”
The judge did not recall her saying anything, but her son testified he heard her say, “He shot me.”
Phillip Ferguson tackled his father and demanded he release the gun, the judge testified.
“I said get off me,” and he released the gun.
The judge struggled to get up and was unsure what had just happened, he said.
“The first thing I said to him was `Don’t shoot me,’ ” he testified. “I figured he might shoot me because he saw his mother get shot. After that I said call 911.”
Ferguson said he went outside to call 911 himself to streamline the process of getting paramedics into the house. He said his years of experience in law enforcement taught him police would want to make sure the house is safe to enter first before paramedics could aid the victim, so he wanted to be outside to assure them it was safe to go in.
While waiting for first responders, Ferguson texted his clerk and bailiff, “I just lost it. Just shot my wife. I won’t be in tomorrow. I will be in custody. I’m so sorry.”
Ferguson said he sent the note because, “I was trying to grasp some mundane thing to get a grip on the reality. I was in shock, trying to grab onto something.”
When police arrived and ordered him to get down on the ground he refused and even cursed them at one point because he feared that once he got down he wouldn’t be able to get back up. He told them to “throw me on my left side, not the right side” because of his sore shoulder.
Ferguson said he made multiple remarks with police when they brought him to the station such as “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, convict my ass” because, “I was overwhelmed by emotion, guilt and worried about my son. I felt terrible. I just felt like lock me up, throw away the key. I felt terrible.”
He lamented the state no longer follows through on capital punishment because he felt terrible about what happened, not because he was guilty of a crime, he said.
“I didn’t mean to kill her. It was an accident,” he said. “I was not shooting at her on purpose. The gun went off unexpectedly… I felt tremendous emotion and guilty.”
The prosecutor showed the judge multiple pictures of guns, some of which Ferguson recalled and others he did not. Some of the weapons belonged to his wife or son, he said.
When showed what appeared to be an automatic rifle on the top shelf of his closet, Ferguson said it was a plastic replica that he placed up on the top shelf two decades ago. Ferguson acknowledged he could shoot the gun with his arm crooked, but added not fully extended.
When asked if he was a skilled shooter, Ferguson said, “I was actually a lousy shot.”
Under questioning from Talley, Ferguson acknowledged it was wrong of him to carry the gun while drinking. He said he just got used to the ankle- holster like one would a watch.
Ferguson will continue testifying Tuesday.
