Orange County judge can stand trial in wife's shooting death, judge says

A judge has ruled there is sufficient evidence for a Southern California judge to stand trial on a murder charge in the shooting death of his wife. The decision came Thursday after Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson's preliminary hearing. Ferguson was arrested in August and charged with killing his wife in their home in the upscale neighborhood of Anaheim Hills. The hearing was held before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Eleanor J. Hunter to avoid a conflict. Until the shooting, Ferguson presided over criminal cases in a courtroom about 25 miles away in the Orange County city of Fullerton. Ferguson's attorney says the shooting was an accident.