Republican Orange County, California Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, who shot his wife Sheryl square in the chest during a drunken argument at their home in front of their 23 year-old son back in August 2023, is almost certainly headed to a second trial after some fucking asshole on the jury refused to vote to convict over eight days of deliberation, prompting Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Eleanor J Hunter to declare a mistrial on Monday, USA Today reports.
On August 3, 2023., the couple’s son Phil said he witnessed Jeffrey and Sheryl first arguing over dinner at a Mexican place where Jeff made a gun-like hand gesture at her chest. Then at home, the argument flared up again in the living room when Sheryl screamed “Why don’t you point a real gun at me?” Jeff did, pulling a .40 Glock he kept strapped to his ankle and promptly shooting her in the chest. Jeff then dialed 911 and when the dispatcher asked if he shot his wife the judge said he wasn’t ready to discuss it at the time. Before the cops came he then texted his clerk and said “I just lost it. I just shot my wife. I won’t be in tomorrow. I will be in custody. I’m so sorry.”
That of course was not what happened according to Ferguson’s testimony at the trial, with the judge claiming he was placing his gun on a coffee table at the request of his wife when a pain in his right arm caused him to accidentally fire the weapon. It’s semi-consistent with the lie he told Hunter after his ankle monitor detected alcohol in his system, that he’d applied hand sanitizer to it due to chafing.