JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The first of three trials in the high-profile Jared Bridegan murder-for-hire case is set to begin jury selection in just two weeks.
Mario Fernandez, the second husband of Bridegan’s ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, will face his final pre-trial hearing on Monday before becoming the first of the three defendants to go on trial.
Gardner and Fernandez are accused of hiring Henry Tenon, a former tenant of Fernandez, to fatally shoot Bridegan, a 33-year-old father of four, in February 2022.
Gardner, Fernandez and Tenon are all under indictment for first-degree murder and other charges and have each pleaded not guilty.
After initially planning to try Gardner and Fernandez at the same time, defense attorneys and state prosecutors have since agreed that they should face separate trials, with two separate jury selection periods.
Fernandez will go on trial first, with jury selection slated for Aug. 10-14, and his trial scheduled for Aug. 17-28.
Monday’s hearing is expected to settle any remaining issues before jury selection begins, and those rulings could determine what evidence and testimony jurors are allowed to hear.
Gardner will go on trial after Fernandez, with jury selection from Aug. 31-Sept. 4, and the trial from Sept. 8-25.
Tenon, who is also expected in court on Monday, will go on trial in March.
In 2023, Tenon pleaded guilty and admitted to being the gunman who killed Bridegan, but he has since backtracked, and a judge granted his motion to withdraw his guilty plea and go to trial.
Timeline: How we got here
More than four years ago, Jared Bridegan dropped his then-9-year-old twin children off at the home of his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, after a “date night” with their dad.
He left Gardner’s Jacksonville Beach home on Feb. 16, 2022, with his 2-year-old daughter, Bexley, strapped in her car seat in the back of his dark-colored SUV. They were headed back to St. Augustine.
But the 33-year-old Microsoft employee never made it home.
Following his normal route through the Sanctuary neighborhood, Bridegan suddenly had to stop in the area of Jacksonville Drive, America Avenue and Sanctuary Boulevard.
A tire was in the road.
When Bridegan stepped out of his SUV, he was ambushed by gunfire. At least one bullet missed Bexley by mere inches in her car seat.
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Bridegan was left lying in the street next to the SUV with the door wide open, and the shooter seemed to melt into the shadows just as quickly as he had launched his ambush attack.
None of the 911 callers that night mentioned seeing a shooter or a vehicle leaving the scene.
LISTEN: Press play below to hear 911 calls from night of Jared Bridegan’s murder (WARNING: May include graphic content)
But eventually, detectives tracked down the man they say pulled the trigger.
Investigators say that it was all part of a murder-for-hire plot set in motion by Gardner and her second husband, Mario Fernandez. It was a conspiracy that began in November of 2021, according to court documents.
Interactive Timeline
Alleged murder-for-hire scheme
According to detectives, Gardner was tired of sharing custody of her twin children with Bridegan.
Fernandez, she knew, could “take care of him” because of his military background, Gardner told a friend. At least that’s what the friend told investigators as she detailed the strained marriage between Gardner and Fernandez and the contentious ongoing custody battle between Gardner and Bridegan.
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Investigators say that’s exactly what Fernandez did, hiring Henry Tenon, a tenant at one of his properties, to kill Bridegan.
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.
Tenon’s original court records said he became involved in the 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.
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Tenon was later arrested in Bridegan’s murder, and investigators said the single link between Tenon and Bridegan was Fernandez.
Again, Tenon initially pleaded guilty, but has since withdrawn his guilty plea.
He is now under indictment for some of the same charges as Gardner and Fernandez.
Gardner and Fernandez are charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation to commit a capital felony and child abuse.
Tenon is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, child abuse, possession of a firearm by a felon and accessory after the fact.
State prosecutors initially said they would be seeking the death penalty against Gardner and Fernandez if they were convicted, but they have since taken the death penalty off the table, with the support of Bridegan’s widow, Kirsten, and his family.