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One week after admitting in a textual content message that he shot his spouse after he “misplaced it,” Orange County Superior Courtroom Decide Jeffrey Ferguson pleaded not responsible to homicide costs in a downtown L.A. courtroom.
Ferguson, 72, was charged with homicide final week. Prosecutors allege he pulled a gun from his ankle holster and shot his 65-year-old spouse, Sheryl, contained in the couple’s Anaheim Hills house. He spent one evening in jail and has remained free in lieu of $1-million bail since, information present.
Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom Decide Ricardo Ocampo allowed Ferguson to stay free throughout a Tuesday morning listening to, however ordered him to give up his passport and barred him from touring anyplace exterior Los Angeles, Orange or Riverside counties. The veteran decide should additionally chorus from consuming alcohol or possessing firearms, undergo digital monitoring and keep away from bars, Ocampo stated.
Ferguson, sporting a black swimsuit with white hair swept barely towards his eyes, didn’t communicate to reporters exterior the courtroom. His attorneys, John Barnett and Paul Meyer, described the killing as an “unintentional capturing and never a criminal offense.”
“Decide Ferguson protected and served the residents of Orange County for 40 years. He’s assured that when a jury from Orange County hears these info they may agree with us that this was an unintentional discharge of a firearm, there was no intent to kill, no malice,” Barnett stated.
Requested how his consumer could be spared from a manslaughter cost if the capturing was in truth unintentional, Barnett insisted Ferguson was harmless of that crime too.
On the evening of the Aug. 3 capturing, Ferguson and his spouse received into an argument over dinner at a restaurant, the place he threatened her “by making a hand gesture indicative of pointing a gun at her,” prosecutors allege.
The argument continued when the couple returned house, the place Sheryl Ferguson stated, “Why don’t you level an actual gun at me?” or one thing related, prosecutors allege.
The decide eliminated a .40-caliber Glock handgun from his ankle holster and shot Sheryl as soon as within the chest, prosecutors stated.
Ferguson and his 22-year-old son known as 911 earlier than the decide reached out to his legislation clerk and bailiff by way of textual content message.
“I simply misplaced it. I simply shot my spouse. I received’t be in tomorrow. I can be in custody. I’m so sorry,” he wrote, in keeping with court docket filings.
After Ferguson’s arrest, Anaheim police confiscated 47 firearms and greater than 26,000 rounds of ammunition from his house. Detectives have been unable to discover a .22-caliber rifle that’s registered in his title, in keeping with the district legal professional’s workplace. In court docket, the decide’s attorneys insisted that he doesn’t personal such a weapon.
Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor, stated the info of the case as publicly recognized clearly justify a homicide cost.
“They’ll say he was within the warmth of ardour … however it is vitally a lot what we might name a second-degree homicide,” she stated. “In California, the usual is callous disregard for human life. Even when you’re drunk, you possibly can have sufficient intent to fulfill the necessities of second-degree homicide.”
Levenson stated the info of the case will in all probability inhibit Ferguson’s skill to argue he was too impaired to understand the hazard he’d put his spouse in. Ferguson’s blood-alcohol content material was measured at 0.06% after the capturing, under the authorized restrict for intoxication, court docket information present.
“The usual is malice, and right here malice could be that he a minimum of realized the chance that he was going to noticeably injure or kill her,” she stated. “The much less drunk he’s, the simpler it’s to argue that he realized that danger.”
The case has been moved out of Orange County’s court docket system as a result of Ferguson had been a decide there since 2015. However even if Ferguson was a longtime prosecutor earlier than taking the bench, the Orange County district legal professional’s workplace continues to be prosecuting the case as a result of the California legal professional basic’s workplace declared there was no battle of curiosity.
Sheryl Ferguson was laid to relaxation in a Hollywood Hills cemetery Monday, in keeping with her youthful brother, Larry Rosen, who stated his sister was “a beautiful particular person, very caring, very selfless.”
Rosen declined to debate the specifics of the case or reply questions concerning the Fergusons’ relationship, apart from to say, “There’s going to be some stuff that may probably come up.” However he described the capturing as an “absolute tragedy.”
“The household is totally in shock and she or he’s going to be missed dearly,” he stated. “She’s very nicely liked by very many individuals.”
Instances employees author Christopher Goffard contributed to this report.
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