JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A man accused of arranging the fatal shooting of a Microsoft design manager on a Florida road was convicted Wednesday in a murder-for-hire scheme that followed years of a stormy child custody arrangement between the victim and his wealthy ex-wife.
Jared Bridegan was shot in 2022 after he got out of his SUV to remove a tire from a road in Jacksonville Beach. The attack stumped police for months as they struggled to understand why someone with no apparent enemies would be killed while his daughter sat nearby in her car seat.
Prosecutors believe he was killed because of ongoing strife with his former 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 start in September.
“They wanted a majority of the decision making. They wanted more custody, even 60-40,” Assistant State Atty. Christina Stifler said during closing arguments Tuesday in Duval County court.
“It doesn’t matter if they were completely right about the situation or completely wrong. What matters is how they fixed it,” Stifler said. “They fixed it by executing a man when they had other alternatives available to them. That’s why we’re here.”
Prosecutors said Fernandez Saldana hired Henry Tenon to carry out the fatal ambush. He had no personal connection to Bridegan but was a former tenant at Fernandez Saldana’s rental property in Jacksonville. The prosecutor described him as “basically homeless, squatting on people’s couches with overdrawn bank accounts.”
Jurors saw three checks totaling $10,000 written to Tenon after the homicide, marked as payments by Fernandez Saldana for handyman work and a business idea — “good luck!!”
Tenon’s DNA was identified 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.
Defense attorney Jesse Dreicer told jurors that Fernandez Saldana had no motive to have Bridegan killed. Fernandez Saldana and Gardner are estranged, and Gardner moved to Washington state after the killing. She was arrested in 2023.
“He certainly gained no benefit from the death of Jared Bridegan,” Dreicer said, noting there was no testimony that Fernandez Saldana told anyone that Bridegan “deserves to die.”
Gardner is the daughter of the co-founder of Stampin’ Up!, an arts-and-crafts company based in Utah.
Bridegan was shot twice when he stopped his Volkswagen Atlas to move the tire out of the way. He had just returned two children to 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 the post-divorce relationship between her husband and Gardner was “pretty terrible,” adding there was “absolutely no trust.” She said it interfered with the kids’ medical appointments and even routine meetings at school.
Bridegan was chief technology officer at Utah-based Clean Simple Eats before working at Microsoft for less than a year before his death, his wife said.
White writes for the Associated Press.
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