Jury selection began Monday morning, April 7, for the retrial of an Orange County judge accused of second-degree murder in the shooting death of his wife in 2023.
Less than a month after a mistrial was declared in the case against Jeffrey Ferguson — with jurors split 11-1 favoring guilt on second-degree murder — attorneys began picking the new panel that will hear his case in Orange County Superior Court.
The previous jury deliberated for nine days before announcing they were hopelessly hung on March 10. The deliberations lasted longer than the trial itself.
Prosecutors allege that an inebriated Ferguson was angry with his wife, Sheryl, for mocking him and pulled out a Glock .40-caliber pistol that he often carried in an ankle holster, then intentionally shot her while the couple and their adult son were watching the television show “Breaking Bad” at their Anaheim Hills home.
Ferguson testified during the first trial that the shooting was an accident, that as he tried to put the gun on a coffee table, his bad shoulder gave out and he fumbled the firearm and inadvertently fired the fatal shot.
Within days, Ferguson told “Inside Edition” that he and his wife were “just bickering like Lucy and Desi” before he accidentally shot her.
The retrial will be heard in an Orange County courtroom with Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Eleanor J. Hunter again presiding over the trial.