DUVAL COUNTY, Fla. – The accused gunman in the Jared Bridegan murder-for-hire case has entered a motion to withdraw his guilty plea and proceed with a trial instead, according to court documents.
According to the motion filed on Friday, Henry Tenon, who’s accused of killing Jared Bridegan in 2022, is asking the judge to let him take back his guilty plea before sentencing.
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READ | Henry Tenon’s motion to withdraw plea
In January 2023, Tenon was charged with second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, accessory after the fact, and child abuse. He then pled guilty only to second-degree murder with a weapon under a deal requiring him to testify against Bridegan’s ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, and her estranged husband, Mario Fernandez, in exchange for dropped charges and a sentencing range starting at 15 years.
However, in January 2025, Tenon changed his tune, stating that his testimony against Gardner and Bridegan was false, and he requested a new attorney.
Bridegan, a 33-year-old father of four, was killed in an ambush-style shooting in Jacksonville Beach in 2022.
Investigators say Fernandez wrote 3 checks to Tenon totaling $10K in the weeks after the murder.
In his initial interview with police in July 2022, Tenon told investigators that he had been renting a home from Fernandez in Jacksonville’s Biltmore neighborhood for several years.
Relying on Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.170(f), Tenon’s motion argues “the court may, in its discretion, and shall upon good cause, at any time before a sentence, permit a plea of guilty to be withdrawn.”
Meanwhile, Gardner and Fernandez — both under indictment for first-degree murder and other charges — are still on track to have their trial this summer, with jury selection set for Aug. 10.
In November 2025, prosecutors said they would no longer be seeking the death penalty against Gardner and Fernandez accused in the murder-for-hire plot that investigators say killed Jared Bridegan.
News4JAX reached out to the State Attorney’s Office for comment on Tenon’s motion, but said it “would defer comment to next week’s court hearing on the matter.”