JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Testimony continued Monday as the state tries to prove its case against Mario Fernandez in the February 2022 ambush murder of Jared Bridegan.
Among the civilians testifying on Monday was John Biggerstaff, a longtime friend of Fernandez who investigators have said they believe was the source of the gun that killed Bridegan. The weapon has never been recovered.
Last week, jurors heard from Bridegan’s widow, two witnesses who came upon the murder scene, and investigators who detailed DNA, surveillance video, cellphone data and other evidence in the case.
Fernandez is charged with first-degree murder and solicitation to commit a capital felony in the Feb. 16, 2022, shooting that left Bridegan dead on a dark Jacksonville Beach street.
‘Planned ambush’
Prosecutors have described the deadly shooting 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 after stopping his Volkswagen Atlas SUV to remove a tire that prosecutors say was left in the road to lure Bridegan out of the vehicle.
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When Bridegan opened his door to move the tire, he was shot multiple times, and two bullets hit the SUV, narrowly missing his 2-year-old daughter, Bexley, who was strapped into her car seat.
Bridegan was driving home to St. Augustine after dropping off the twins he shared with his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, at the Jacksonville Beach home where Gardner lived with Fernandez, her new husband.
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Gardner and Bridegan divorced in 2015 and spent years in and out of court in contentious disputes over how to care for the twins. Prosecutors have suggested that ongoing tension was a major motive for Bridegan’s murder, which they say was orchestrated by Gardner and Fernandez.
Investigators say the ambush was carried out by Henry Tenon, who was a tenant at a rental property Fernandez owned on Potomac Avenue in Northwest Jacksonville. An analyst testified last week that Tenon’s DNA was found on the tire that had been left in the road.
Gardner and Tenon have also been indicted in Bridegan’s murder and have pleaded not guilty. They will have separate trials after Fernandez.
Prosecutors allege Fernandez hired Tenon to kill Bridegan, saying that Fernandez is Tenon’s only link to a man he had never met. But Fernandez’s defense has argued that the state cannot prove who solicited Tenon or that Fernandez was involved in the shooting.
Minutes after the shooting, Jonelle Cruz and her boyfriend drove upon the scene, seeing an SUV blocking the road.
Cruz, the first trial witness, 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.
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Key evidence: Where is the gun?
Defense attorneys have questioned lead Jacksonville Beach Police Detective Chris Johns and other investigators about the missing 10mm Glock believed to have been used to kill Bridegan. (The type of weapon was identified because of shell casings left at the scene.)
Investigators say the 10mm, which is a more uncommon firearm, is significant because Biggerstaff owned a 10mm at one point but could not produce it for detectives after the murder.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Biggerstaff has never been charged with a crime in connection with Bridegan’s murder.)
The state has said Fernandez visited Biggerstaff on Jan. 25, 2022, weeks before the murder, and that investigators found evidence that Biggerstaff searched for information about 10mm firearms on the day of the visit.
But the defense noted there is no physical evidence that Fernandez obtained a gun there and said Fernandez could have visited Biggerstaff’s home for reasons unrelated to the murder, including their longstanding personal relationship.
“What you certainly have no evidence of is that Mr. Biggerstaff gave Mr. Fernandez a 10mm firearm,” defense attorney Jesse Dreicer said in one of many tense exchanges with Johns.
“There is no physical evidence of that,” Johns replied.
“OK. When you say no physical evidence, there is no evidence of that. Correct?” Dreicer asked again.
“There is no physical evidence of that,” Johns repeated.
Key evidence: How did they find the blue truck?
ATF Agent Kenneth Stengel testified about the discovery of the blue, two-tone Ford F-150 that investigators say was captured on video being used in the killing.
Investigators had scoured the area for months after the shooting, and on Oct. 14, 2022, Stengel and a fellow agent used Google location data from Henry Tenon’s device to locate the truck at the home of Jimmy Jones, who turned out to be a longtime family friend of Tenon.
The truck was visible from the street, and Stengel said Jones was cooperative. Stengel said the truck’s discovery was a major break in the investigation.
Stengel and Johns both admitted on cross-examination that investigators did not search Jones’ home or the rest of the property for the missing firearm.
No DNA sample was taken from Jones, and no additional testing was conducted at the property. Stengel testified that he had no knowledge of any connection between Jones and Fernandez and that Jones was not treated as a suspect.
Johns said the truck was the only evidence recovered there and that investigators had no reason to search the house because records showed the truck arrived months after the homicide and Jones was not considered a suspect.
Dreicer challenged that explanation, noting investigators had not recovered the firearm and had evidence that Tenon had been at the home.
“Other than the fact that the biggest break in the case was found at Jimmy Jones’s house. Other than that, there was no reason to search the house,” Dreicer said.
Stifler made a point of asking Johns on re-direct about not searching Jones’s home. Johns confirmed to her that investigators received information in 2023 that the gun involved in the murder had been destroyed shortly after the shooting, so it would not have been at Jones’s home even if they’d searched for it.
Key evidence: Who was driving the blue truck?
Video evidence shown in court traced the 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
Key evidence: Cellphone tracking & activity
FBI Agent Bobby Blythe testified that Fernandez’s phone was near his home before and after Bridegan’s killing but produced no cellular data from about 7:10 to 8:20 p.m.
He could not explain the gap or place Fernandez at the crime scene, but prosecutors pointed out that the gap happened at the same time as the murder.
The last gunshots that killed Bridegan in Jacksonville Beach were captured on a neighbor’s surveillance camera shortly before 8 p.m.
Tenon’s phone and Google data showed travel from the Potomac Avenue property toward Jacksonville Beach, including a Jan. 29, 2022, route prosecutors described as a possible practice run.
Defense questioning established the cellphone data did not show Fernandez and Tenon were together or place Fernandez at the murder scene.
Blythe said cellphone records show approximate, not exact, locations, and JSO Detective David Ostertag testified that a factory reset that Fernandez did before his phone was collected meant it no longer contained potential location data.
Fernandez’s defense suggested the reset may have been routine because it happened on the same day Fernandez purchased a new phone, but prosecutors pointed out that Fernandez still had the phone and had logged back in to all his social media accounts after the data was erased.
Former ATF intelligence research specialist Lindsey Butler testified that Fernandez and Tenon exchanged frequent calls and messages, including a 27-minute call on March 10. Butler said investigators focused on that date because Jacksonville Beach police had released images of the suspected blue Ford F-150 the previous day.
Butler also described more than 5,000 Google Chrome deletions processed the morning of Fernandez’s March 1 police interview, but acknowledged she could not identify what was deleted or connect it to the killing.
“All I can say is that they were processed on the same date of the first interview,” Butler said.
Potomac property
In his cross-examination of Detective 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 made a point while questioning Johns that there was surveillance video evidence showing it was not unusual for Fernandez to be at the rental property when the renter was not at the home, and that by late January, another man had begun renting the property.
Dreicer pointed to surveillance footage showing Fernandez repeatedly visiting the Potomac 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: Jan. 29, 2022.
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 Jared 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 made a point of talking about how dirty the inside of 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.
Former ATF Agent Butler also testified that she found no evidence of payments from Fernandez to Tenon before the Feb. 16, 2022, homicide. The only payments she was aware of were the three checks issued after the killing.
She said she could not determine whether the checks were related to the homicide.
“I don’t have information that I can speak to now that these three checks were anything other than what they said on the memo line,” Butler said.
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 Shanna 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 that interview, 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 and Thursday, 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.
Carlos Phuong, a friend of Fernandez since high school, testified on Thursday about Fernandez’s relationship with Gardner and about two phone calls he placed to Fernandez in January 2023, when neither man was aware they were being recorded.
The expletive-laced calls between the two friends were played for the jury.
In the calls, Phuong told Fernandez that media reports were linking Gardner to Jared Bridegan’s death and that Henry Tenon had been arrested. They discussed Tenon’s work on Fernandez’s rental property and possible motives, along with unrelated topics.
Phuong testified that Fernandez made no admission, did not seem evasive and said he had nothing to do with the killing.
Phuong also testified that he never heard Fernandez or Gardner threaten Jared Bridegan or discuss planning his killing.
What’s next?
Fernandez’s murder 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.
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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.