What Did Their Son See?

As families go, the Fergusons of Anaheim Hills, Calif., seemed closer than most.

Jeffrey Ferguson, an Orange County superior court judge, and his wife, Sheryl, a homemaker, doted on their adult son Phillip, a university student in Dallas, where his parents bought him a home and planned to retire so that they could spend more time with him in the future.

Family friend Early Hawkins ran into the trio at a bar association social event last summer. “I gave Sheryl a hug,” Hawkins recalls, and he teased Phillip about the photos of gourmet meals he had cooked that Sheryl proudly posted on Facebook. “They seemed like a happy family,” says Hawkins. “They seemed fine — very fine.”

But all was not well. On Aug. 3, 2023, Anaheim police arriving at the Ferguson residence after Phillip, 23, called 911 found Sheryl, 65, lying face up and bleeding from a gunshot wound to the torso; she was pronounced dead at the home. A Glock .40 caliber handgun and an overturned leather chair with a bullet hole and traces of blood were beside her.

According to authorities, Phillip told police that he and his parents were at a nearby Mexican restaurant — where Jeffrey’s attorney acknowledges he enjoyed some drinks — and they got into a heated argument over finances, and Jeffrey, 73, pointed his finger at his wife in a manner imitating a gun.

After returning home and watching Breaking Bad on the living room TV, the couple rekindled their argument, prosecutors claim. According to court testimony, Sheryl said to her husband, “Why don’t you point a real gun at me?” and Jeffrey pulled a gun out of an ankle holster he was wearing and fatally shot his wife. Soon after, the judge allegedly told his son to call 911 and sent a text message to his court clerk and a bailiff: “I just lost it. I just shot my wife. I won’t be in tomorrow. I will be in custody. I’m so sorry.”

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Jeffrey was charged with one felony count of murder and one felony enhancement of personal use of a firearm and one felony enhancement of discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury and death on Aug. 11. He pleaded not guilty and, through his lawyer, maintains the shooting was unintentional. “It’s not a murder,” says defense attorney Ed Welbourn. “It’s a terrible accident that resulted in the death of the love of his life.”

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With a common background in criminal justice, Jeffrey, a prosecutor who specialized in narcotics cases before he was elected to a judgeship in 2014, and Sheryl, who once worked with the Santa Barbara and Orange County probation departments, shared many interests. Both were active in local Republican politics and kept a large collection of legally owned firearms. “He and his wife both smiled a lot,” says friend Linda Whitaker, who saw them at Flag Day events and Lincoln Club dinners. “They made you feel like you were in their home.”

There were no smiles, however, on the night the family dined at an El Cholo restaurant last summer and began to bicker about money. Sheryl stormed out of the eatery after her husband made the gun gesture, according to prosecutors, and back at home Jeffrey — who had carried a gun since receiving death threats as a prosecutor more than a decade ago — allegedly pulled a weapon from its holster. But his lawyer says Jeffrey never intended to discharge the weapon — a “tragedy,” he says.

Police say Phillip told them he saw his dad pointing a handgun at his mom — and then a flash. But Jeffrey’s defense says Phillip recalled only seeing the flash, nothing before. He then pinned his father to get the firearm before performing CPR on his mom, later telling authorities he thought Jeffrey fired “by accident.”

As Jeffrey, who is free on a $1 million bond, awaits trial, those who know the Fergusons are mourning Sheryl and praying for strength for her grieving son Phillip. “My only hope is for healing,” says Jacqueline Goodman. “There never was a mother who loved a child more than Sheryl loved Phillip, and I hope that gift sustains him.”