SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- A former Orange County Superior Court judge was sentenced Wednesday to 35 years to life in prison for shooting his 65-year-old wife to death during an argument in their Anaheim Hills home in 2023.

The first trial against 74-year-old Jeffrey Ferguson ended in a mistrial after the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. His second trial ended earlier this year when the jury found him guilty of second-degree murder.

Before Wednesday's sentencing, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Eleanor Hunter, who was brought in to oversee the trial because of Ferguson's position on the Orange County bench, denied a motion for a new trial from the defendant's co-counsel, Frances Prizzia.

Prizzia had argued that her client should get a new trial because Hunter denied a

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