Hunt said Ferguson had ample experience and training in operating firearms, and Phillip Ferguson testified that his father taught him firearm safety, including to always point a weapon in a safe direction.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson sat in the courtroom about 10 miles (16 kilometers) away from where he previously presided over criminal cases, waiting for his turn to testify in his own trial.
Immediately after the shooting, Jeffrey Ferguson and his son both called 911, and Ferguson texted his court clerk and bailiff saying, “I just lost it.
Ferguson’s lawyer, Cameron J. Talley, said his client was an alcoholic and had been drinking when he began removing a gun he always carried with him in an ankle holster and went to place it on a table.
Prosecutors allege Ferguson made a gun hand gesture toward his wife earlier in the evening after the couple argued about family finances while dining at a Mexican restaurant with their adult son, Phillip.
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