JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A person charged with arranging the fatal ambush of a Microsoft design supervisor is headed to trial Monday in Florida, greater than 4 years after the sufferer was repeatedly shot outdoors his car whereas his 2-year-old youngster was strapped in a automobile seat.
Investigators say a tire was positioned within the street in a plot to distract and kill Jared Bridegan, 33, in Jacksonville Seashore in 2022. They allege it was a murder-for-hire scheme involving his ex-wife and her present husband.
The husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, 38, is charged with first-degree homicide in Duval County court docket. Bridegan’s former spouse, Shanna Gardner, 39, can also be charged with homicide, although her trial will not begin till September.
Bridegan and Gardner had been granted a divorce in 2015. Nevertheless it was adopted by years of acrimony over the parenting of their two kids.
Police discovered that Gardner “hated Mr. Bridegan, hated having to share custody of the youngsters with him and wished him lifeless,” Choose London Kite wrote, summarizing proof after a bond listening to in 2024.
The alleged gunman, Henry Tenon, had pleaded responsible to second-degree homicide in 2023 and agreed to testify towards Fernandez Saldana. However he withdrew the plea earlier this 12 months and can get his personal trial in 2027.
Authorities stated Tenon, 65, was paid no less than $10,000 by Gardner and Fernandez Saldana after Bridegan’s loss of life. Tenon’s DNA was additionally on the tire blocking Bridegan’s journey.
Bridegan was attacked shortly after returning 9-year-old twins to Gardner’s dwelling, following an everyday “date night time” with the youngsters, police stated.
He was driving dwelling to St. Augustine with one of many two kids he had with spouse Kirsten, whom he married in 2017.
“I’m so sorry that after you had discovered happiness and achievement in life, your life was taken from you,” Kirsten Bridegan wrote on social media on their anniversary in 2024. “However I’m so grateful I bought to be a part of these brief years and that we shared a lot happiness earlier than it was too late.”
Bridegan was chief expertise officer at Utah-based Clear Easy Eats earlier than working at Microsoft, based on his obituary.
