A former veteran Orange County Superior Court judge who pulled a pistol from his ankle holster and fatally shot his wife during a heated argument at the couple’s Anaheim Hill’s home received a life sentence on Wednesday, Sept. 17, for a killing that shocked the local legal community.

Five months after an Orange County Superior Court jury found him guilty of second-degree murder, Jeffrey Ferguson, 74, was ordered to serve 35 years to life in state prison for the killing of his wife, Sheryl Ferguson. The sentence was a few years shy of the maximum 40-years-to-life-sentence he had faced.

Jeffrey and Sheryl Ferguson were staples of the local legal community. He spent decades as a prosecutor and a judge, while she worked for both the Santa Barbara and Orange County probation departments befor

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