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Trial begins for Aliso Viejo man accused of gunning down his father and his father’s girlfriend

Trial began Tuesday for a 30-year-old man accused of gunning down his father and his father’s girlfriend and wounding two others at an Aliso Viejo home — a shooting a survivor has said appeared to stem from the father telling his son to stop drinking beer and to get a job.

Luke Ferguson is facing a pair of murder charges for the Oct. 12, 2017, slayings of his dad, 59-year-old Douglas Ferguson, and his father’s long-term girlfriend, 51-year-old Lisa Cosenza. There are also attempted-murder charges for injuring two men who were renting rooms at Cosenza’s home in the Hamptons neighborhood.

During opening statements Tuesday in a Santa Ana courtroom, Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker told an Orange County Superior Court jury that Ferguson, then 26, may have carried out the shootings because he was tired of being harassed about getting a job.

Ferguson’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Chris McGibbons, told jurors that there was no hint of violence from Ferguson prior to the shootings. The defense attorney also questioned the prosecution’s description of the shootings, and mentioned that at least one neighbor saw an unidentified man appearing to hide in a nearby backyard following the shootings, after Ferguson was said to have left the neighborhood.

About four to six weeks prior to the shootings, the younger Ferguson had come to live with his father, who worked in construction, and Cosenza, a former advertising director at the Daily Pilot. Two other men — Brandon Dufault and Todd Kuchar — were renting rooms at the Aliso Viejo home.

Around 2 p.m., the father and Kuchar came home from work to find the younger Ferguson and Cosenza watching television together, while Dufault was upstairs getting ready for a date, both sides’ attorneys said.

Kuchar told investigators that the younger Ferguson told the others that he was going to go upstairs to take a nap. About five minutes later, Kuchar told investigators, Ferguson came back downstairs with a gun belonging to his father and shot his dad in the chest without saying a word.

The father stood up and said “what the f,” the prosecutor said, and the son allegedly shot him again. Ferguson then shot Kuchar several times as the victim ran from the condo, the prosecutor said, and shot Cosenza in the head.

Dufault, who was in the shower upstairs, told police that he heard a commotion followed by what he thought was a nail gun being fired. Then, Dufault told investigators, someone kicked in the door to the bathroom and shot him.

“He yelled for help, but nobody else could help him because everyone else was dead or injured or had fled,” Walker told jurors.

Bystanders in the neighborhood called 911 after seeing the wounded Kuchar. Dufault was blinded by his injuries.

Ferguson was found in Inglewood driving Dufault’s car with another gun he had allegedly stolen from his father, according to the prosecutor.

McGibbons acknowledged that Ferguson’s father had pushed his son to get a job and complained he was eating much of the food and drinking their beer. But the defense attorney denied that Ferguson reacted with violence.

“Why would Luke kill his father, his father’s girlfriend and try to kill Brandon, who he has known his entire life, and Todd, who he has no problem with?” the defense attorney asked.

McGibbons noted that a neighbor who heard the gunshots told police that she also heard a woman pounding on a metal screen door at the home and yell, “Let me in!,” despite investigator’s being told that Cosenza was shot inside the condo.

Another neighbor saw a suspicious man who was never identified hiding in backyards and running in the area after Ferguson had been spotted driving out of the neighborhood, the defense attorney added.

The attorney denied that Ferguson was hiding from the police after the shooting. He raised the possibility, without elaborating, that Ferguson may have been scared by something that “went down” at the home.

Along with weapons in a gun safe, police also found firearms and jars with marijuana in a locked master bedroom closet, McGibbons told jurors. And Dufault never saw who shot him, the defense attorney said, only seeing a “dark shape” from outside the shower before he was struck by gunfire.

If convicted, Ferguson faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.


Source: Orange County Register

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