JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Mario Fernandez’s defense attorney will continue to challenge the strength of the evidence connecting his client to the murder-for-hire killing of Jared Bridegan when the lead detective in Bridegan’s murder returns to the stand Thursday morning.
Fernandez is charged with first-degree murder and solicitation to commit a capital felony in the February 2022 shooting that left Bridegan dead on a dark Jacksonville Beach street.
Prosecutors describe the killing as a planned ambush.
“The killer was a stranger to Jared Bridegan. The murder was personal,” Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler told jurors during opening statements.
Bridegan, a 33-year-old Microsoft design manager and father of four, was killed Feb. 16, 2022, after stopping his Volkswagen Atlas SUV on that dark street to remove a tire that prosecutors say was left in the road to lure Bridegan out of the vehicle.
Bridegan, who was driving home to St. Augustine after dropping off the twins he shared with Gardner at her Jacksonville Beach home, was shot twice as his 2-year-old daughter, Bexley, sat in the vehicle. Two other bullets struck the SUV, narrowly missing Bexley.
RELATED | Who was Jared Bridegan? A father, a creative builder, a believer — and so much more
The first trial witness, Jonelle Cruz, testified about comforting Bexley after her boyfriend found the toddler in the SUV near her father’s body that night.
Prosecutors say Bexley had been alone for about 7 minutes before Cruz and her boyfriend arrived.
In a video shown to jurors, Bexley described to Cruz hearing a “Boom!”
“She was shaking. She was very worried about her dad,” Cruz testified.
Prosecutors allege Fernandez hired Henry Tenon, who was a tenant at a rental property Fernandez owned, to kill Bridegan, his wife Shanna Gardner’s ex-husband, after years of contentious disputes over the twins. Gardner and Bridegan divorced in 2015.
The defense has argued that prosecutors cannot prove who solicited Tenon or that Fernandez was involved in the shooting.
Key evidence: Where is the gun?
Defense attorney Jesse Dreicer on Wednesday questioned Jacksonville Beach police Detective Chris Johns about Fernandez’s relationship with John Biggerstaff, whom investigators believe may have provided the 10mm gun used to kill Bridegan.
According to court documents, the state has said that Fernandez visited Biggerstaff on Jan. 25, 2022, weeks before the murder, and that there was evidence that before that visit, Biggerstaff had been looking up information on 10mm weapons, which was the type used to kill Bridegan.
Biggerstaff owned a 10 mm gun at one point but had to give up that gun and other weapons after he was convicted of a felony. When police asked about the 10 mm gun, Biggerstaff said he didn’t have it.
But Dreicer suggested Fernandez could have visited Biggerstaff’s home for reasons unrelated to the murder, including their longstanding personal relationship. (Fernandez attended Sandalwood High School with Biggerstaff’s daughter.)
Dreicer also questioned Johns about a video found on Biggerstaff’s phone that showed Fernandez having sex with Biggerstaff’s wife. Johns agreed the Biggerstaffs practiced a consensual “swinger” lifestyle.
The defense argued that Fernandez’s visit to Biggerstaff’s home in January 2022 did not prove he obtained a weapon there.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Biggerstaff has never been charged with a crime in connection with Bridegan’s murder.)
“What you certainly have no evidence of is that Mr. Biggerstaff gave Mr. Fernandez a 10mm firearm,” Dreicer said.
“There is no physical evidence of that,” Johns replied.
Johns also acknowledged that the gun used to kill Bridegan has never been recovered.
Key evidence: Who was driving the blue truck?
Video evidence shown in court traced a blue, two-tone Ford F-150 through Jacksonville Beach on the night of the killing.
Prosecutors say the truck carried the shooter to the scene of the murder, but that surveillance showed a person running from the area after the shooting while someone else drove away in the truck.
That means two people were there that night, the prosecutors and defense agree.
But they don’t agree on who that might be.
The defense has emphasized that Fernandez was not shown driving the truck or accompanying Tenon.
Investigators acknowledged they could not identify the truck’s driver and that there is a 32-minute gap in the footage when they don’t know where the truck was in Jacksonville Beach that night.
What surveillance video did capture, though, was an unsettling moment outside the Jacksonville Beach Police Department the night of the murder.
A man prosecutors believe was Tenon walked past the station just seconds before Kirsten Bridegan arrived in the family’s SUV after learning her husband had been shot.
Kirsten testified on Monday that she did not recognize the man, and it was unclear whether she had seen the footage before or knew how close she had come to him that night.
Interactive timeline
Potomac property
In his cross-examination of Johns, Dreicer also focused on cellphone and surveillance evidence involving Fernandez’s rental property on Potomac Avenue, where Tenon lived at one point.
Fernandez’s phone was recorded at the property for several hours on Jan. 29, 2022, while Tenon’s phone traveled toward Jacksonville Beach and back in what prosecutors describe as a practice run for the night of the murder.
Dreicer pointed to surveillance footage showing Fernandez repeatedly visiting the property, meeting contractors and carrying construction materials.
He argued the video supported Fernandez’s explanation that he was overseeing legitimate repair and renovation work.
Johns agreed the footage showed Fernandez performing or arranging property work but said it did not establish what happened on the specific day in question.
Key evidence: Was there DNA?
Prosecutors presented evidence from a DNA analyst on Wednesday afternoon, who said that Tenon’s DNA was found on the tire used to stop Bridegan’s vehicle.
Investigators say Tenon’s boots, jacket and distinctive gait also matched evidence associated with the shooter.
Fernandez’s DNA was not found on any of the items tested by investigators, the analyst acknowledged.
Detective Johns also acknowledged there was no surveillance, fingerprint, hair or other physical evidence placing Fernandez in Tenon’s blue pickup truck or proving he accompanied Tenon to Jacksonville Beach.
Dreicer also made a point of talking about how dirty the truck was when investigators found it months later, implying that the evidence was not missing because someone had “wiped” the truck.
Key evidence: What were the checks for?
The state has highlighted three checks totaling $10,000 that Fernandez wrote to Tenon after the killing.
Johns testified Tuesday that three business check stubs, which were later matched to three checks Fernandez wrote to Tenon, were found in the blue truck.
The checks were described as payment for landscaping, roof work and a Kickstarter project that the state says didn’t exist.
The checks from First Choice Home Rentals LLC — all signed by Fernandez — were for $2,000 and $3,000 dated March 28, 2022, and $5,000 dated April 4, 2022.
Prosecutors argue the payments were disguised compensation for the murder.
But the defense says Tenon performed work at Fernandez’s property and that the checks were legitimate.
“Henry Tenon is a worker. Mario Fernandez has hired him to do work, not murder, tree work, roof work, landscaping, tile work,” defense attorney James Hill said in his opening statement
Gene Nichols, an attorney not involved in the case, said the checks are the hinge point of the entire trial.
“I think when it’s all said and done, what does the jury believe about the checks? That’s going to rule a tremendous amount,” he said. “That, to me, is going to be where this hinges — will a jury believe that those checks were written in order to commit murder, or were those checks written for the work that Mr. Hill said they were written for?”
He added that the burden of proof remains high.
“If the jury believes that they were for work that was done, or they take the position that the state didn’t prove that the money was for murder, then that’s going to sway a jury,” Nichols said. “In order to convict him, it’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt by all of those jurors.”
What’s the motive?
Prosecutors have pointed to the hostility between the two families as a possible motive for Bridegan’s murder.
Kirsten Bridegan, Jared’s widow, testified Monday that the co-parenting relationship between Jared and Gardner had deteriorated into constant conflict.
“It was pretty terrible,” Kirsten Bridegan said on the stand. “There was absolutely no trust so everything was in writing. Texts, email. We did not speak in person, like at school events. Didn’t do phone calls.”
In his initial interview with detectives, which was played in court on Tuesday for about 50 minutes. Fernandez discussed the ongoing conflicts over the twins, describing Jared Bridegan as difficult and “passive-aggressive,” and calling him a “keyboard warrior.”
Fernandez also mentioned the family communication in his initial interview with detectives, saying the family was in a group text and had an arrangement to text when they arrived to pick up the kids for date night.
The custody agreement established alternating Wednesday “date nights” for both parents on the week when the children were in the other parent’s home.
Dreicer argued that the schedule for date night was public information and therefore could have been known by people outside the family.
“So the idea that (Wednesday date night) is some personal detail that only the Bridegans would know and only the Gardner-Fernandez residence would know is simply not true. It’s public information. Correct?” Dreicer asked.
“The docket is publicly available,” Johns acknowledged.
Friends testify
On Wednesday, friends of Fernandez also testified.
Taylor Kutis described conversations involving Fernandez’s marriage, co-parenting disputes and an obscure “contract” involving his wife’s family.
Under cross-examination, Kutis acknowledged that her recollections were not verbatim, that she kept no notes and that some details came from media reports.
Victor Quiroz, a longtime online gaming friend, testified that Fernandez visited him in North Carolina in March 2022.
Quiroz said Fernandez acted normally and did not discuss the killing. Fernandez mentioned only later that his wife’s former husband had been shot.
What’s next?
The trial is scheduled to continue through Aug. 28.
Gardner, 39, faces a separate trial in September, while Tenon is scheduled to stand trial in 2027 after withdrawing an earlier guilty plea.
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.
Neither Gardner nor Tenon will testify in Fernandez’s trial.
The case has garnered national attention, and Judge London Kite has repeatedly explained to the 12 jurors and four alternates that they can not look up anything about the case or talk about it with anyone.
As part of the preparation for trial, Kite previously ordered that the seated jurors’ names be kept anonymous until 60 days after the trial, which is typical in high-profile cases. The jurors were referred to only by their numbers during jury selection to protect their identities.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.