NEWS

Verdict in Ferguson trial could come Wednesday

Chris Torres
ctorres@thedailyjournal.com
Dreu Ferguson Jr. is seen in Cumberland County Superior Court on Tuesday.

BRIDGETON – With an absence of facial and neck injuries, the death of a Millville man authorities said was buried in lime and fertilizer by his son under their back porch six years ago may have been of natural causes, according to a forensic pathologist testifying for the defense in the Dreu Ferguson Jr. trial.

Jonathan Arden, a former Washington, D.C. medical examiner, was the defense's lone witness to take the stand at the trial Tuesday in Cumberland County Superior Court.

Both the prosecution and defense rested their cases Tuesday, and closing arguments and jury deliberations are set for Wednesday morning.

Ferguson Jr., 39, is on trial for allegedly murdering his father — Dreu Ferguson Sr., 58 — and burying him under their back porch in May 2009 at their Maple Street home in Millville. The younger Ferguson elected not to take the stand Tuesday.

Arden, who now works in Virginia, was the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy in the high-profile case of Washington, D.C. federal intern Chandra Levy, 24, who disappeared in 2001 and was found dead in a park a year later.

The forensic pathologist disagreed Tuesday with medical examiner Ian Hood's ruling that Ferguson Sr.'s death was a "homicide by unspecified means, not excluding asphyxia." Hood conducted the autopsy on the 58-year-old Ferguson.

"My first disagreement is the use of the word 'homicide,'" Arden said. "Homicide is a manner of death. It is not a cause of death."

Defense attorney Timothy Reilly said Arden reviewed the autopsy report, and the attorney suggested Ferguson Sr. may have died of natural causes.

"Does the finding in homicide take into consideration that somebody could've died from natural causes, but then be buried?" Reilly asked.

Dreu Ferguson Jr. looks at Judge Robert Malestein at the begin of the trial in Superior Court in Bridgeton on Tuesday.

"Certainly that's among the possibilities," Arden said. "The circumstance of hiding the body won't look any different, so yes, that's a possibility... If there isn't enough evidence on which to base an opinion toward reasonable medical certainty that the cause of death was asphyxia — that means you can't include it."

Cumberland County Assistant Prosecutor Jonathan Flynn rested his case Tuesday morning after calling Detective William Edminster of the Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office to the stand to review photos of the pit where Ferguson Sr.'s body was found. Some photos, displayed in court, also showed the body in it.

Ferguson Jr. looked straight ahead when Flynn displayed the photos from a projector along the wall to Ferguson Jr.'s left.

File: Dreu Ferguson Jr.

The 39-year-old Millville man faces charges of murder, disturbing, desecrating or concealing human remains; tampering with evidence; and terroristic threats in connection with his father's death.

Ferguson Jr. was charged with terroristic threats and illegally burying his father's body when he was arrested in May 2009. He was charged with murder two years later.

He was also convicted of murder in 2008 in West Virginia after shooting a neighbor, but the conviction was overturned upon an appeal.

Wednesday's proceedings begin in Cumberland County Superior Court at 9 a.m.

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