A man has been convicted of murder after arranging the fatal shooting of a Microsoft manager who was killed in front of his daughter in Florida. Jared Bridegan was shot in 2022 after getting out of his SUV to remove a tire from a road in Jacksonville Beach. The attack stumped police for months as they struggled to figure out why someone with no apparent enemies would be killed while his daughter sat in her car seat.
Prosecutors believe Bridegan was killed because of an ongoing dispute with his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, over the parenting of their twins. Mario Fernandez Saldana, 38, was convicted of first-degree murder and solicitation of murder and faces an automatic sentence of life in prison. He’s married to Gardner, 39, whose trial is set to begin in September.
They wanted more custody, even 60-40," Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler told the jury during closing arguments Tuesday in Duval County. What matters is how they fixed it,” Stifler said. That’s why we’re here.” Bridegan was shot twice when he stopped his Volkswagen Atlas to move the tire out of the way.
He had just dropped off his two children at Gardner's home after a meal with the twins. At the time of his death, he was married to Kirsten Bridegan and they had two children. Kirsten Bridegan told the jury that her husband and Gardner had a “pretty terrible” post-divorce relationship and that there was “absolutely no trust.” She said it interfered with the children's medical appointments and meetings at school.
Fernandez Saldana hired a handyman named Henry Tenon to carry out the fatal ambush, prosecutors say. He had no personal connection to Bridegan but was a former tenant at Fernandez Saldana’s rental property in Jacksonville. The prosecutor described Tenon as “basically homeless, squatting on people’s couches with overdrawn bank accounts.” Jurors were shown three checks, totaling $10,000, written to Tenon after the murder, marked as payments by Fernandez Saldana for handyman work and a business idea — “good luck!!” Tenon’s DNA was found on the rim of the tire that was intentionally placed in the road, police said.
He initially pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against Fernandez Saldana but backed out and will stand trial in 2027. At Fernandez Saldana’s trial, his defense attorney Jesse Dreicer tried to argue that he had no motive to arrange to have Bridegan killed. Fernandez Saldana and Gardner are estranged and Gardner moved to Washington state after the killing.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
