The son of an Orange County Superior Court judge charged with fatally shooting his wife in their Anaheim Hills home testified Tuesday that his father learned in 2019 that his son from a previous marriage was not biologically his.
Phillip Ferguson testified that his mother, Sheryl, would become frustrated whenever her husband — Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson — gave money to that other son, Kevin, for daycare expenses, and her frustration was heightened by the fact Kevin was not Ferguson’s natural child.
Jeffrey and Sheryl Ferguson were arguing in part about Kevin Ferguson on Aug. 3, 2023, when the judge is accused of fatally shooting his wife.
Last month, a separate jury deadlocked 11-1 in favor of conviction on a second-degree murder charge in the case against the 74-year-old Jeffrey Ferguson, who is accused of killing his 65-year-old wife, Sheryl, at the end of a heated argument that began in a restaurant and ended inside the family home. The judge’s attorneys contend the shooting was an accident.
The evidence about Kevin Ferguson was revealed for the first time in court Tuesday, as jurors were shown bodycam video from one of the first responding officers at the scene of the shooting. That evidence was also not included in the first trial.
Phillip Ferguson said he told officers who responded to the shooting that his parents had been arguing about Kevin that evening.
“He’s not his natural son,” Phillip Ferguson said he told officers about Kevin.
It was unclear how the family realized after so many years that Kevin Ferguson was not Jeffrey Ferguson’s biological son.
The bodyworn camera footage of the questioning of Phillip Ferguson appeared to echo much of his testimony in both trials, which has been at times confused and contradictory.
He said of his father, “He only gets mad when he’s drinking.”
Jeffrey Ferguson acknowledged in testimony in the first trial that he has a drinking problem.
As the couple continued squabbling in their family room the night of the shooting, Phillip Ferguson told officers, “I stood up and walked over by the door” to the home’s patio.
Phillip Ferguson, who was 22 at the time and graduated from Southern Methodist University in May 2024, said he went to retrieve one of his replica swords from his collection as the argument heated up.
“I figured I would pull it out because I was worried,” he told officers. “I didn’t think anything was going to happen.”
But Phillip Ferguson also told the officers, “If they were going to keep arguing I was going to step out for a bit.”
According to Phillip, Sheryl Ferguson got angry with her husband when the judge made a hand gesture like a gun at her while the family was having dinner and the couple were arguing earlier that night at a local Mexican restaurant.
According to Phillip Ferguson, his mother said, “`You’ve done that to me so many times,’ and he said `I’ve never done that.”’
Jeffrey Ferguson testified in his first trial that he made the gesture as a way of saying “touche” to signal his wife won the argument.
Phillip testified that when the family returned home and his parents continued arguing, he heard his mother say, “Why don’t you just point a real gun at me.”
He told the responding officers that night, “That’s when he pulled out a gun… I turned around just as the gun shot.”
Phillip Ferguson acknowledged that his parents would often get into heated disputes. At times they would get louder but on other occasions his father would “clam up,” Phillip Ferguson testified.
He testified about his father coming home from work the day of the shooting and drinking beer and rum and Coke before the family went out to eat.
He said his father trained him about gun safety, which included tips such as always treating a weapon as if it were loaded and never pointing it at anything a shooter does not want to destroy.
Phillip Ferguson said he didn’t recall whether or not he saw his father fire the gun, but Senior Deputy District Attorney Seton Hunt had to remind him he earlier testified that he did see the gun being fired.
In the bodyworn video shown to jurors on Tuesday, Phillip Ferguson told officers his father fired the gun one handed, “I think.”
“I remember at some point — I believe I saw a (gun) flash,” Phillip Ferguson testified Monday. “After that I heard my mom say `He shot me,’ and I jumped over the couch (to tackle the defendant).”
Hunt asked him, “Was the gun pointed at your mother?”
“I believe so,” Phillip Ferguson said. “I remember the gunshot and tackling him.”
After tackling his father he held the defendant’s hand down and demanded he release it, Phillip Ferguson said.
Hunt told jurors during opening statements Monday that Jeffrey Ferguson was a gun expert who carried around his Glock in an ankle holster. He said the judge and his wife got into an argument that night over money the defendant had sent to Kevin, with the victim complaining his son had not sent a thank you card.
Hunt said Ferguson had been drinking for much of the afternoon, continuing at dinner and at home
When the couple returned home from dinner, the family watched an episode of “Breaking Bad” and were starting another one when Ferguson asked to pause it because he was still arguing with the victim, Hunt said.
Defense attorney Frances Prizzia told jurors that as the argument continued, Jeffrey Ferguson thought he heard his wife say, “Why don’t you put that gun away.”
“He’s intoxicated,” the defense attorney said. “That statement was confusing to him. He didn’t understand but… he thinks whatever makes her happy.”
At that point, Ferguson took his gun out of this ankle holster, Prizzia said. But as he was trying to place the gun down safely on a cluttered coffee table, his shoulder, which is missing three of four tendons, gave a little and he fumbled the gun, Prizzia said. As he struggled to regain control of the weapon it was triggered, Prizzia said.
The defense attorney said the location of the spent cartridge, which ended up under the coffee table, will back that account up as well as the autopsy results.
Hunt countered that the bullet, which went “center mass” as shooters are trained, went through her chair and ended up in the wall.
The prosecutor played videos of the defendant while in custody admitting he shot his.
“I killed her, ladies and gentlemen of the jury,” Ferguson was recorded as saying. “Convict my ass. I did it.”
Police recovered 48 guns in the defendant’s home along with thousands of rounds of ammunition, Hunt said.
After the shooting, Ferguson walked out of the house while his frantic son called a 911 dispatcher, who talked him through attempts to revive her, Hunt said. The first thing Ferguson did when he got out of the home was to text his court staff to tell them he wouldn’t be in the next day because he had shot his wife, Hunt said.
Ferguson’s blood-alcohol level six or seven hours after the shooting was 0.065, Hunt said. An expert estimated his blood-alcohol level at 0.17% at the time of the shooting, according to the prosecutor.
Hunt noted the gun needs 5 pounds of pressure to pull the trigger — an attempt to head off the defense’s argument that it was an accidental shooting as the defendant fumbled with the gun.
Ferguson never said during questions that he accidentally shot his wife, Hunt said. The judge is seen on some of the video showing concern for losing his pension, Hunt said.
“I did it. Convict me. Send me on my way,” Ferguson said while being questioned.