JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The man investigators say orchestrated and funded a conspiracy to kill a St. Johns County father of four in February 2022 pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Duval County court to the charges against him.
Mario Fernandez Saldana was arrested in Orange County last month on charges of first-degree murder with a weapon, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, solicitation to commit a capital felony and child abuse.
“This is a capital felony punishable by death or mandatory life in prison,” State Attorney Melissa Nelson said when the charges were announced.
Fernandez, 34, was transferred to the Duval County jail and appeared before a judge in Jacksonville last month, who ordered him to continue to be held without bond.
Fernandez appeared in Duval County court again Tuesday, where his attorney waived a formal reading of the four-count indictment against him and entered a plea of not guilty on all charges.
Fernandez will be in court again May 3. Prosecutors said they are not offering Fernandez a plea deal.
Fernandez’s charges stem from the Feb. 16, 2022, murder of Jared Bridegan, 33, who was shot at close range several times on a dark stretch of road near the Sanctuary neighborhood while his toddler daughter was still strapped into her car seat in the back of his SUV. Police said bullets fired at Bridegan went inside the car, inches from his daughter’s car seat.
Bridegan is the ex-husband of Fernandez’s wife, Shanna Gardner-Fernandez.
The man who says he pulled the trigger in the Bridegan shooting -- 61-year-old Henry Tenon -- has already pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with a weapon in the ambush killing and agreed to testify against Fernandez and anyone else who might be charged in connection with Bridegan’s murder.
Investigators say Fernandez was behind a months-long conspiracy to kill Bridegan that began Nov. 1, 2021, according to Fernandez’s indictment.
Tenon’s original court records said he became involved in the murder conspiracy on Jan. 4, 2022 -- just over a month before Bridegan was killed.
Investigators said when Tenon was arrested on an unrelated felony driving charge in August 2022, they questioned him about Bridegan’s murder and a Ford F-150 truck they had been searching for since the shooting.
Tenon was later arrested in January 2023 for Bridegan’s murder. Investigators said the single link between Tenon and Bridegan was Fernandez.
The News4JAX I-TEAM had previously uncovered records confirming that Tenon rented a house owned by Fernandez in Northwest Jacksonville, about 25 miles from the scene of the Jacksonville Beach shooting. Nelson confirmed this information during a news conference.
According to the arrest warrant for Fernandez, bank records showed three handwritten checks that Fernandez wrote to Tenon. The amount of the checks was redacted from the document.
“We know Henry Tenon did not act alone, and Tenon has confirmed this to be true. His cooperation has both corroborated evidence collected during the investigation and provided additional evidence against Mario Fernandez Saldana for his role in the planning and execution of Jared’s murder,” Nelson said.
Investigators said they also discovered that the two men had more than 70 interactions via phone in the months before and after Bridegan was killed.
Fernandez’s warrant reads: “phone records show that Tenon and Fernandez had 35 phone contacts in February, 30 contacts in March and five to nine contacts in May and June, 2022.”
According to the warrant, Bridegan had been on a routine “date night” with his children the night he was killed and had dropped off the two children he shared with his ex-wife before taking the typical route he traveled home.
“This road, unlike the nearby commercial area, is dark and mostly residential with no businesses in the immediate area,” the warrant reads.
The weapon from the shooting has not been recovered.
The state attorney did not give details on a possible motive, but the arrest warrant notes Gardner-Fernandez’s contentious divorce from Bridegan, who had also had a contentious relationship with Fernandez.
Gardner and Bridegan were married in 2010 and divorced in 2015. They shared custody of their 9-year-old twins. The arrest warrant also makes note that “up until the murder, Gardner shared equal custody of her children with Bridegan.”
Fernandez’s arrest warrant said Gardner-Fernandez (then Gardner) met Fernandez at her CrossFit gym in 2018 after her “highly acrimonious divorce” from Bridegan in 2015. Fernandez worked at the gym as a maintenance man.
There’s been a lot of public interest in Gardner-Fernandez, who has proclaimed her innocence in interviews with other outlets.
According to sources, Gardner-Fernandez moved with her children across the country to Benton County, Washington, where her family has a home.
The Daily Mail reported in January that Fernandez was staying with his brother in Orlando. He was arrested in Kissimmee.
Nelson said the investigation continues and many details are still being withheld because of that.
