The fatal shooting of a Microsoft design manager on a dark Florida road was a “targeted ambush” hatched by his ex-wife and her husband, following years of post-marriage strife over religion and how to raise twin children, a prosecutor told jurors Monday.
Jared Bridegan, 33, was killed in Jacksonville Beach in 2022 when he got out of his vehicle to remove a tire that was placed in the road while his 2-year-old daughter from a second marriage was strapped in her car seat.
More than four years later, Mario Fernandez Saldana, 38, is on trial in Duval County court for first-degree murder and solicitation of murder. He’s accused of arranging Bridegan’s death by hiring a gunman. Shanna Gardner, 39, faces her own trial in September.
“The killer was a stranger to Jared Bridegan. The murder was personal,” Assistant State Attorney Christina Simak Stifler said.
Defense says Fernandez Saldana didn’t act like mastermind
But defense attorney James Hill told the jury that Fernandez Saldana, an Army veteran, had no desire to get rid of Bridegan and his actions shortly after the killing — a road trip to Pennsylvania and back — didn’t resemble that of a criminal architect “running from the law.”
“He had access to a lot of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Hill acknowledged, referring to his wife’s trust fund. “He could have fled the country.”
In her opening remarks, Stifler traced the bitter relationship between Bridegan and Gardner, the execution-style killing and the difficulty of trying to solve a shocking homicide with no witnesses. The victim, she said, had no obvious enemies and was a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Bridegan and Gardner were divorced in 2015. The end of the marriage, however, led to years of acrimony about how to jointly raise their twins, from religion to doctor’s appointments and even school conferences, Stifler said.
She said Gardner did not want her children involved with the Mormon church.
“They fought over everything. … It was nasty. It was petty. It was not good on both sides,” the prosecutor said of the relationship.
Victim’s daughter heard the gunshots
Bridegan remarried and had two more children. Gardner, meanwhile, married Fernandez Saldana, who was a maintenance man at a gym where she worked out.
Bridegan was attacked shortly after returning 9-year-old twins to Gardner’s home, following a regular “date night” with their children.
He was driving home to St. Augustine with one of two children he had with wife Kirsten when he stopped to remove a tire from the road. The child later recalled hearing “loud booms” and asking, “Are police going to help my daddy?” Stifler said.
A few months later, she said, police discovered a lead “that blew the case open” - a tire at a rental property owned by Fernandez Saldana. Investigators found the tire was similar to another tire that blocked Bridegan’s Volkswagen Atlas on his drive.
Police matched DNA on those tires to Henry Tenon, a former tenant with a criminal record and financial problems. Records revealed that he was paid $10,000 by Fernandez Saldana after the murder, though the checks said the work was for landscaping, roof repair and a business idea.
“Mario Fernandez has hired him to do work, not murder,” Hill told the jury, disputing anything nefarious.
Accused suspected gunman pleaded guilty but backed out
Tenon, 65, was charged as the gunman who shot Bridegan. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and had agreed to testify against Fernandez Saldana. But he withdrew the plea earlier this year and will get his own trial in 2027.
Stifler said Gardner, who was from a wealthy family, relocated to Washington state with her children after Bridegan’s death. Fernandez Saldana, meanwhile, moved to Orlando.
“Ms. Gardner got what she wanted: full control over her children and the freedom to move out of Jacksonville, Florida,” the prosecutor said.
Bridegan was chief technology officer at Utah-based Clean Simple Eats before working at Microsoft, according to his obituary.
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