A mistrial was declared in the murder trial of Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on March 10.
Jurors were tasked with convicting Ferguson of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter or acquitting him of all charges. The jury was deadlocked 11-1 in favor of convicting Ferguson of second-degree murder after more than 40 hours of deliberation, according to The Associated Press.
Ferguson is accused of shooting and killing his wife, Sheryl Ferguson, in their Anaheim Hills home on Aug. 3, 2023, according to a press release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. He was charged with one felony count of murder, one felony enhancement of personal use of a firearm and one felony enhancement of discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury and death.
Ferguson pleaded not guilty, with defense attorney Paul Meyer stating that the case was an “unintentional, accidental shooting and not a crime,” as reported by The Associated Press.
Ferguson claimed the shooting was an accident, “saying he fumbled the gun due to a shoulder injury and it accidentally misfired as he reached for it from his ankle holster and tried placing it onto a cluttered coffee table,” according to CBS News.
Prosecutor Seton Hunt said the couple were arguing when they went out to dinner earlier that night and later at their residence. Hunt also said Ferguson was drinking that night and then shot his wife while watching television with their son.
“At one point in the evening, Ferguson made a gun hand gesture toward her, and she later chided him to point a real one at her,” Hunt said in court.
Jury deliberations began Feb. 26 and were paused on March 7 after the jury reached its third impasse, unable to announce a verdict. NBC News reported that the jury asked the judge to take a break and return March 10 after “a week of frustration and exhaustion.”
Ferguson was taken back into custody after being released on a $1 million bail when a judge ruled that he lied about drinking alcohol while out on bail. His new bail was set at $2 million.
“He [Ferguson] claimed that an alcohol monitor he was wearing as a bail condition was set off after he applied hand sanitizer and other medication” to soothe his ankle swelling, according to CBS News.
Ferguson previously served as a prosecutor for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office beginning in 1983 before being elected to the Orange County Superior Court as a judge in 2015, according to the district attorney’s press release.
He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Irvine, in 1973 and his Juris Doctor from Western State University College of Law in 1982.
While disqualified from presiding as a judge during his trial, Ferguson is still able to receive a salary under the California Constitution. Article 6, Section 18 states that a judge can continue to draw a salary during a pending indictment for a crime punishable as a felony under state or federal law.
After a hearing on March 13, a retrial for Ferguson is now set for April 7.
Noosha Taghdiri is a News Staff Writer. She can be reached at taghdirn@uci.edu.
Edited by Jaheem Conley.