California judge pulled a gun and shot his wife during an argument, prosecutor says

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California judge pulled a loaded gun from his ankle holster and fatally shot his wife during an argument while the couple was watching television, a prosecutor told jurors as the judge’s trial got underway Wednesday.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, who is now 74 years old, is heard saying on police videos shown in court that he shot his wife, Sheryl Ferguson. His lawyer doesn’t dispute that Ferguson fired the gun but contends it was an accident.

Ferguson had been drinking on Aug. 3, 2023, when he argued with his wife about finances during dinner at a local restaurant and later while watching “Breaking Bad” at home with their adult son, prosecutor Seton Hunt said. At one point in the evening, Ferguson made a gun hand gesture toward her, and she later chided him to point a real one at her, Hunt said.

Ferguson proceeded to do so and pulled the trigger, Hunt said. He was later taken into custody, and in comments captured on a police video recording, pleaded for a jury to convict him.

“I killed her,” Ferguson is heard saying. “I did it.”

Wednesday’s statements came at the beginning of Ferguson’s trial on a murder charge in a case that has roiled the legal community in Orange County. To avoid a conflict of interest, a Los Angeles County judge is presiding over the case before jurors in Santa Ana — not far from where Ferguson previously heard cases in his courtroom.

Ferguson — who used to be a criminal prosecutor — sat in court in the defendant’s chair and wore a gray suit jacket and glasses. He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Cameron J. Talley, reserved his opening statement for later in the trial, but he previously said the shooting was accidental. He said his client planned to testify.

After the shooting, Ferguson and his son both called 911, and Ferguson texted his court clerk and bailiff saying: “I just lost it. I just shot my wife. I won’t be in tomorrow. I will be in custody. I’m so sorry,” according to a copy of a text message Hunt showed jurors.

Video footage from a police body-worn camera shows Ferguson outside the home, in handcuffs, swearing and asking if his wife was still alive. He said his son and everyone would hate him, and that he never imagined he would wind up like the violent gang members he prosecuted when he worked in the district attorney’s office, according to the footage.

“Never in my wildest dreams I thought I’d be sitting here in handcuffs,” Ferguson is heard saying.

Authorities have said they later found 47 weapons, including the gun, and more than 26,000 rounds of ammunition at Ferguson’s home. Hunt said Ferguson had ample experience and training in operating firearms.

Ferguson's son Phillip testified that his father taught him firearm safety, including to always point a weapon in a safe direction. He said after the shooting he jumped over a couch and forced his father to hand over the gun. He said he then called 911 and attended to his mother, performing CPR when she was no longer breathing.

“As I was jumping over the couch, I heard her say, ‘He shot me,’” Phillip said.

Ferguson was released on $1 million bail in 2023 but re-arrested last year after Judge Eleanor J. Hunter determined he had lied about drinking alcohol in violation of his bail conditions. Ferguson was later released on $2 million bail.

Ferguson has been an elected judge in Orange County for a decade, but he is not currently hearing cases. Under the state’s constitution, a judge who faces a felony charge can continue to draw a salary but can’t hear cases.

He began his legal career in the district attorney’s office in 1983 and went on to work narcotics cases, for which he won various awards, and was president of the North Orange County Bar Association from 2012 to 2014.

Ferguson was admonished by the Commission on Judicial Performance in 2017 for posting a statement on Facebook about a judicial candidate “with knowing or reckless disregard for the truth of the statement,” and for being Facebook friends with attorneys appearing before him in court, according to a copy of the agency’s findings.

On his Facebook page, Ferguson said he grew up in a military family and traveled throughout Asia as a child. He attended college and law school in California and married his wife in 1996.

This story has been edited to correct the spelling of the first name of Judge Jeffrey Ferguson’s wife. Her name was Sheryl, not Cheryl.

Senior Deputy District Attorney, Seton Hunt presents his opening statements in the prosecution of Jeffrey Ferguson, an Orange County Superior Court judge, who allegedly pulled a gun from his ankle holster and fatally shot his wife, at the Santa Ana Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (Frederick M. Brown/Pool Photo via AP, Pool)

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Eleanor J. Hunter listens to opening statements by prosecutor Senior Deputy District Attorney, Seton Hunt at the trial of Jeffrey Ferguson, an Orange County Superior Court judge, who allegedly pulled a gun from his ankle holster and fatally shot his wife, at the Santa Ana Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (Frederick M. Brown/Pool Photo via AP, Pool)

Senior Deputy District Attorney, Seton Hunt, Seton Hunt presents his opening statements in the prosecution of Jeffrey Ferguson, an Orange County Superior Court judge, who allegedly pulled a gun from his ankle holster and fatally shot his wife, at the Santa Ana Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (Frederick M. Brown/Pool Photo via AP)

Senior Deputy District Attorney, Seton Hunt presents his opening statements in the prosecution of Jeffrey Ferguson, an Orange County Superior Court judge, who allegedly pulled a gun from his ankle holster and fatally shot his wife, at the Santa Ana Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (Frederick M. Brown/Pool Photo via AP, Pool)

Senior Deputy District Attorney, Seton Hunt, Seton Hunt presents his opening statements in the prosecution of Jeffrey Ferguson, an Orange County Superior Court judge, who allegedly pulled a gun from his ankle holster and fatally shot his wife, at the Santa Ana Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (Frederick M. Brown/Pool Photo via AP)

Senior Deputy District Attorney, Seton Hunt, Seton Hunt presents his opening statements in the prosecution of Jeffrey Ferguson, an Orange County Superior Court judge, who allegedly pulled a gun from his ankle holster and fatally shot his wife, at the Santa Ana Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (Frederick M. Brown/Pool Photo via AP)

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Eleanor J. Hunter listens to opening statements at the trial of Jeffrey Ferguson, an Orange County Superior Court judge, who allegedly pulled a gun from his ankle holster and fatally shot his wife, at the Santa Ana Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (Frederick M. Brown/Pool Photo via AP)

Jeffrey Ferguson, an Orange County Superior Court judge, right, who allegedly pulled a gun from his ankle holster and fatally shot his wife, stands on trial during opening statements at the Santa Ana Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (Frederick M. Brown/Pool Photo via AP)

Jeffrey Ferguson, an Orange County Superior Court judge, sitting far right, who allegedly pulled a gun from his ankle holster and fatally shot his wife, stands on trial during opening statements with his attorney Cameron Talley, sitting second from right, at the Santa Ana Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (Frederick M. Brown/Pool Photo via AP)

Jeffrey Ferguson, an Orange County Superior Court judge, who allegedly pulled a gun from his ankle holster and fatally shot his wife, stands on trial during opening statements at the Santa Ana Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (Frederick M. Brown/Pool Photo via AP)

Jeffrey Ferguson, an Orange County Superior Court judge, right, who allegedly pulled a gun from his ankle holster and fatally shot his wife, stands on trial during opening statements with his attorney Cameron Talley at the Santa Ana Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (Frederick M. Brown/Daily Mail via AP, Pool)

Jeffrey Ferguson, an Orange County Superior Court judge, who allegedly pulled a gun from his ankle holster and fatally shot his wife, stands on trial during opening statements at the Santa Ana Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (Frederick M. Brown/Pool Photo via AP)

Jeffrey Ferguson, an Orange County Superior Court judge, who allegedly pulled a gun from his ankle holster and fatally shot his wife, stands on trial during opening statements at the Santa Ana Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (Frederick M. Brown/Pool Photo via AP)

FILE - Investigators remove firearms from Judge Jeffrey Ferguson's residence in Anaheim, Calif., on Aug. 4, 2023. (Paul Bersebach/The Orange County Register via AP, File)

FILE - Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson walks out of court after attending a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles, Thursday, June 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

FILE - Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson appears during a hearing at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, Pool, File)

ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.

The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.

The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.

The U.S.-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Islamic State group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria's national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.

The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”

The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.

Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.

The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.

On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.

Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.

“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”

Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.

Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.

“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.

Associated Press journalist Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

Sandbag barriers used as fighting positions by Kurdish fighters, left inside a destroyed mosque in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Burned vehicles at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

People flee the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

A Syrian military police convoy enters the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Burned vehicles and ammunitions left at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)