A California judge accused of murdering his wife texted his clerk to say 'I just shot my wife. I won't be in tomorrow,' prosecutors say

• A California judge was arrested and accused of murdering his wife in their Orange County home.
• Prosecutors said he texted his court clerk and bailiff afterward: "I just shot my wife."

A Southern California judge accused of killing his wife texted his court clerk and bailiff afterward to say he had shot her, prosecutors said Friday as they charged him with murder and sought new bail conditions.

A court filing from prosecutors says Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson texted: "I just lost it. I just shot my wife. I won't be in tomorrow. I will be in custody. I'm so sorry."

Ferguson, 72, was arrested last week after his adult son called 911 and said his 65-year-old mother had been shot at their Anaheim Hills home, the Orange County District Attorney's office said in a press release on Friday.

When officers arrived, they found Sheryl Ferguson dead with at least one gunshot wound, authorities told local outlet ABC7.

While conducting a search warrant on Ferguson's home, police found 47 weapons, "including rifles, shotguns, and handguns, and more than 26,000 rounds of ammunition," the DA said.

Another weapon is still missing, the DA's office said: a legally registered .22 rifle.

A court document viewed by ABC7 alleges that Ferguson used a Glock .40 to shoot his wife, who prosecutors allege he threatened "earlier in the evening by making a hand gesture indicative of pointing a gun at her."

Ferguson's lawyers, Paul Meyer and John Barnett, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Meyer and Barnett issued a brief statement and declined to answer questions: "This is a tragedy for the entire Ferguson family. It was an accident and nothing more."

The judge was released on a $1 million bond and ordered not to drink or use firearms

Ferguson has been charged with three counts, including felony murder, personal discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury and death, and personally using a firearm, according to court records.

He has been released from custody on a $1 million bond with a number of conditions, including not drinking or possessing firearms, the DA's office said.

Ferguson has been a judge since 2015. He handles criminal cases in the Orange County city of Fullerton.

He started his legal career in the Orange County district attorney's office in 1983 and went on to work narcotics cases, for which he won various awards. He served as president of the North Orange County Bar Association from 2012 to 2014.

In 2017, Ferguson was admonished by the Commission on Judicial Performance for posting a statement on Facebook about a judicial candidate "with knowing or reckless disregard for the truth of the statement" and for being Facebook friends with attorneys appearing before him in court, according to a copy of the agency's findings.

Ferguson said on his Facebook page that he grew up in a military family and traveled throughout Asia as a child. He went on to attend college and law school in California. He and his wife were married in 1996.