After the case of an Orange County choose charged with homicide for fatally capturing his spouse resulted in a mistrial Monday, Jeffrey Ferguson, the person within the middle of the authorized battle spoke solely with NBC Los Angeles on Thursday.
NBCLA’s Hetty Chang was the one reporter to take a seat down with Ferguson at his Anaheim Hills dwelling the place he shot and killed his spouse.
The very first thing Ferguston did was to point out the NBCLA crew the household room the place he and his spouse, Sheryl, have been sitting when he mentioned he unintentionally discharged his gun and killed her.
Ferguson mentioned he was relieved and disillusioned on the identical time when the jury was unable to achieve a unanimous verdict.
“Within the depend – the 11 to 1. That was form of a blow to my feelings, however I don’t have every other alternative however to maintain going ahead,” Ferguson mentioned.
The person dealing with a potential retrial mentioned sitting in a courtroom, charged along with his spouse’s homicide was like “being in an episode of Twilight Zone.”
“It’s such as you’re snatched out of your actuality, and also you’re plunked down with none warning into a totally completely different world, a world that’s not significantly pleasant to you,” Ferguson mentioned. “After doing what I’ve performed within the legal justice system for 40 years, discovering myself in that chair was bewildering and arduous to fathom.”
In response to critics who should assume the killing was intentional, Ferguson insisted, and reiterated time and again, that it was an accident.
“I’m not getting away with something as a result of I misplaced her, and he or she misplaced her life,” he mentioned whereas sobbing.
The interview with NBCLA adopted a mistrial that was declared Monday within the 74-year-old Ferguson’s homicide trial. He confronted a homicide cost within the Aug. 3, 2023 capturing demise his 65-year-old spouse Sheryl within the couple’s Anaheim Hills dwelling.
The jury, which might have convicted Ferguson of second-degree homicide or involuntary manslaughter, break up 11-1 in favor of a responsible verdict on a second-degree homicide cost quickly after resuming deliberations Monday morning. Deliberations started Feb. 26.
As deliberations stretched into the brand new week, the jury signaled they have been at an deadlock, however continued efforts to achieve a call. Los Angeles Superior Courtroom Decide Eleanor Hunter as jurors Thursday afternoon what number of votes they’d taken and the forewoman mentioned a number of.
Hunter requested them to return to deliberations and focus on.
Jurors left early on Friday, telling the choose overseeing the case they have been “exhausted.”
“Justice rests within the palms of 12 strangers who have been taken from their on a regular basis lives and given the immense duty to weigh the proof and decide guilt or innocence,” mentioned Orange County District Legal professional Todd Spitzer. “Though we’re disillusioned with the result, we shall be reviewing the questions introduced by the jury together with the info in addition to assembly with the sufferer’s household with a purpose to decide within the coming weeks relating to this case. The District Legal professional has at all times been obtainable to satisfy with the sufferer’s household ought to that be one thing they request.”
A jury fails to achieve a verdict within the trial of Jeffrey Ferguson. Hetty Chang stories for the NBC4 Information at 3 p.m. on Monday March 10, 2025.
A listening to to set a brand new trial date is scheduled for Thursday.
“A hung jury will not be a failure,” protection legal professional Cameron Talley mentioned outdoors the courtroom. “A hung jury is a part of the method. It is also a hit in its personal method.
“The shock was that the jury was out this lengthy. I’ve by no means had a jury out for 2 weekends. However I feel it is a testomony to how arduous this jury labored.”
Throughout closing arguments, attorneys for the prosecution tried to persuade jurors that Ferguson was upset following a dispute along with his spouse at a restaurant. Once they two have been again dwelling, Ferguson took out his gun and killed his spouse in a tragic chain of occasions that warrant a homicide conviction, prosecutors mentioned.
“You might have been introduced with proof — credible proof — he took out the gun, he was indignant,” Senior Deputy District Legal professional Seton Hunt informed jurors Wednesday. “He took the gun out, pointed at her and killed her.”
Protection attorneys argued the capturing was unintentional.
“No, completely not. It was an accident,” Ferguson mentioned when requested by Talley whether or not he meant to shoot his spouse.
The Fergusons and their son Phillip went to El Cholo Mexican restaurant earlier that day, however Sheryl Ferguson left after her husband made a hand gesture mimicking a gun throughout an argument, in line with testimony. Later at their dwelling, Phillip Ferguson mentioned he heard his mom say one thing to the impact of, “Why do not you level an actual gun at me?”
Calling it probably the most dependable account of the capturing, Hunt performed video of the son later telling police, “I circled and he pulls out a gun and goals at her and fires.”
Hunt known as the choose’s account — that he fumbled with the Glock pulled from an ankle holster and it unintentionally discharged when he tried to position it on a cluttered espresso desk — “ridiculous.”
Phillip Ferguson mentioned his mom’s final phrases have been, “He shot me,” Hunt mentioned.
Hunt steered Ferguson might have gone upstairs and put the gun away as he routinely did every evening earlier than going to mattress.
“I might have performed a number of issues,” Ferguson mentioned.
Ferguson’s blood-alcohol degree was .065 p.c when it was measured seven hours after the capturing, Hunt mentioned. An knowledgeable testified it was doubtless about .17 p.c, or almost twice the authorized restrict for driving, on the time of the capturing, Hunt famous.
At a information convention after the court docket continuing, Spitzer mentioned he plans to overview a few of Ferguson’s instances. Ferguson, who has been in choose in Orange County for 9 years, testified that he typically had just a few drinks throughout lunch and should have been intoxicated throughout hearings over which he was presiding.
Talley challenged the prosecution’s argument by saying it stems from a misunderstanding of how weapons work. Talley famous how Hunt referred to loading bullets within the gun in the course of the trial when the weapon makes use of magazines. Talley additionally mentioned the pathway of the bullet because the pathologist within the case testified disproves any authorized concept that Ferguson’s arm was crooked at a 45-degree angle.
Talley famous one detective’s testimony about how far the casing from the gun’s projectile would go if it have been fired the best way the prosecution theorized. However Talley mentioned it was discovered proper subsequent to the espresso desk, which was constant along with his concept of an unintentional capturing.
Talley additionally argued that dwelling surveillance video additionally indicated there was no muzzle flash, which was additionally in step with an unintentional misfire. The bullet ripped by means of the sufferer’s stomach “barely to the left” and exited the higher proper of her again, which might match the angle of the place the defendant mentioned the gun misfired, Talley argued.
Talley mentioned there isn’t any proof his consumer was indignant, however, he mentioned, he was trying to make peace and finish the battle.
“He isn’t mad,” he mentioned. “The place’s this drunken rage coming from?”
