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Investigators say a tire was placed in the road in a plot to
distract and kill Jared Bridegan, 33, in Jacksonville Beach in
2022. They allege it was a murder-for-hire scheme involving his
ex-wife and her current husband.
The husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, 38, is charged with
first-degree murder in Duval County court. Bridegan's former
wife, Shanna Gardner, 39, is also charged with murder, though
her trial won't start until September.
Bridegan and Gardner were granted a divorce in 2015. But it was
followed by years of acrimony over the parenting of their two
children.
Police found that Gardner “hated Mr. Bridegan, hated having to
share custody of the children with him and wanted him dead,”
Judge London Kite wrote, summarizing evidence after a bond
hearing in 2024.
The alleged gunman, Henry Tenon, had pleaded guilty to
second-degree murder in 2023 and agreed to testify against
Fernandez Saldana. But he withdrew the plea earlier this year
and will get his own trial in 2027.
Authorities said Tenon, 65, was paid at least $10,000 by Gardner
and Fernandez Saldana after Bridegan's death. Tenon's DNA was
also on the tire blocking Bridegan's travel.
Bridegan was attacked shortly after returning 9-year-old twins
to Gardner's home, following a regular “date night” with the
children, police said.
He was driving home to St. Augustine with one of the two
children he had with wife Kirsten, whom he married in 2017.
“I am so sorry that once you had found happiness and fulfillment
in life, your life was taken from you,” Kirsten Bridegan wrote
on social media on their anniversary in 2024. “But I am so
grateful I got to be part of those short years and that we
shared so much happiness before it was too late.”
Bridegan was chief technology officer at Utah-based Clean Simple
Eats before working at Microsoft, according to his obituary.
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