JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jury selection is slated to begin in less than a week in the trial of Mario Fernandez, the first of three defendants to head to court in the high-profile Jared Bridegan murder-for-hire case.
Fernandez will be back in court with his attorneys on Tuesday as Judge London Kite is expected to decide on some final motions related to the evidence that can be presented at trial.
Last week, Kite granted a motion from prosecutors to limit what Fernandez’s attorneys can ask criminal informants charged with crimes, who will testify for the state.
RELATED | ‘A lot of decisions could be made’: Attorney weighs in on new evidence in Bridegan murder case
Fernandez, who is accused of hiring a gunman to murder Bridegan, his wife’s ex-husband, in a case that has garnered national attention, will now be tried only on first-degree murder and solicitation to commit a capital felony.
Prosecutors announced during a hearing last week that the other two charges Fernandez had been indicted on -- conspiracy to commit murder and child abuse -- had been dropped.
NEW INFORMATION: Prosecutor drops bombshell in Jared Bridegan murder-for-hire case: Accused gunman was not alone on night of shooting
In what was expected to be his final pre-trial hearing, Fernandez and his attorneys asked Judge Kite on Friday to block testimony from a potential witness about a conversation she allegedly overheard between Fernandez and his now-estranged wife, Shanna Gardner.
They argue the testimony might be protected by legal privilege and hearsay rules.
Jury selection for Fernandez will begin on Aug. 10.
Fernandez is accused, along with Gardner, of hiring Henry Tenon, a former tenant of Fernandez, to fatally shoot Bridegan, a 33-year-old father of four, in February 2022 in Jacksonville Beach.
Gardner, Fernandez and Tenon are all under indictment for first-degree murder and other charges and have each pleaded not guilty.
Gardner also appeared in court on Friday for a pre-trial hearing to address issues as her trial date looms after Fernandez.
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.
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.
Prosecution bombshell
While arguing a motion on Friday, Assistant State Attorney Alan Mizrahi revealed information about the case that was new to the public.
Speaking for the prosecution, Mizrahi said the state has evidence that multiple people were involved in the ambush shooting that killed Bridegan in February 2022 in Jacksonville Beach.
Previously, the state had only said that Henry Tenon, the alleged hired gunman, was at the scene and fired the fatal shots after leaving a tire in the road to force Bridegan to get out of his SUV.
Now, the state has indicated that Tenon was not alone at the shooting scene.
“When the victim was killed, there is a person that fled on foot and a person that fled in a vehicle. We know that Henry Tenon left his DNA behind on that tire. And we know that Henry Tenon was not driving the pick-up truck that fled the scene,” Mizrahi said, arguing that this was proof of a deeper conspiracy in the case.
It’s unclear if the state is implying that Fernandez was driving the truck that night or if it was someone else.
During Friday’s hearing, Mizrahi pointed to the landlord-tenant relationship between Fernandez and Tenon as evidence that the two were connected, but said the state also has evidence of communications between the two in the days, weeks and “on the day of the particular crime.”
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.
RELATED | Murder-for-hire plot included practice run along Jared Bridegan’s normal route home: prosecutors
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.
The state has since said that the shooter ran off on foot and someone else drove away from the scene in a pick-up truck.
Prosecutors also said they have Tenon’s DNA on the tire that was left in the road.
LISTEN: Press play below to hear 911 calls from night of Jared Bridegan’s murder (WARNING: May include graphic content)
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.
RELATED: A friend of Shanna Gardner said she could help in Jared Bridegan’s murder case. Here’s what she told investigators | How investigators say they untangled conspiracy to kill Jared Bridegan
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.
RELATED | Follow the money: Checks written to Jared Bridegan’s admitted killer connect him to 2 accused in ‘murder-for-hire plot’ | Jared Bridegan’s wife files wrongful death lawsuit against 3 accused in his murder
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 is 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.