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.
“A tire in the road, a dark place,” she said in her opening remarks. “No one would see and no one would know and no one would trace it back to those responsible. ... The architects of Jared Bridegan's murder intended it to be a perfect crime and it almost was.”
Defense says Fernandez Saldana didn't act like a mastermind
But defense attorney James Hill told jurors that Fernandez Saldana, an Army veteran, had no motive 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 schemer “running from the law.”
“He had access to a lot of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Hill acknowledged, referring to his wife Gardner's trust fund. “He could have fled the country.”
While addressing the jury, 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," 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 from his “date night” with the children.
He was driving back to St. Augustine with one of two children he had with wife Kirsten when he stopped his Volkswagen Atlas and put on warning lights to remove a tire from the road. Bridegan was shot twice moments later.
Traffic began to back up. The first trial witness, Jonelle Cruz, testified that she comforted Bridegan's daughter with a blanket in a separate vehicle while her boyfriend tried to figure out what had happened.
“She was shaking. She was very worried about her dad,” Cruz said.
Stifler said police a few months later discovered a lead “that blew the case open.” A tire at a rental property owned by Fernandez Saldana was very similar to the tire that had blocked Bridegan's vehicle when he was shot.
Police matched DNA on those two 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.
Alleged 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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