JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The man now convicted of first-degree murder in the 2022 ambush shooting of Jared Bridegan will be back in court Tuesday morning on separate charges involving child molestation.
Mario Fernandez, 38, has been charged with two cases of lewd & lascivious molestation involving two separate victims, including one younger than 12.
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NOTE: News4JAX does not identify child victims or victims of sex crimes.
He was already in jail, pending his sentencing in the Bridegan murder, when he was served with the arrest warrant for the new charges.
Fernandez faces a mandatory term of life in prison without parole in the Bridegan case. His attorneys are appealing his conviction.
Child sex charges
Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler said in court that new charges had been filed against Fernandez after “newly discovered evidence” came to light during his trial in the Bridegan case.
According to an arrest affidavit, a female victim told investigators that Fernandez began molesting her in April 2020 when she was about 8 years old and that the abuse “went on for many years.”
The girl described the abuse as happening in the bedroom of her Jacksonville home.
The second arrest affidavit involves a different child victim, whose age is redacted. She told investigators about a specific incident on March 11, 2022, when she was staying at the home of Fernandez and his wife, Shanna Gardner.
She said because of circumstances, she ended up alone in the home with Fernandez, who came into her room, “spooned” her and grinded against her until she got up and locked herself in the bathroom.
The arrest and booking reports reference a date of March 22, 2023, which would have been just under a week after Fernandez was first arrested in the Jared Bridegan homicide.
Other cases affected
Shanna Gardner, Bridegan’s ex-wife, was set to begin trial in his murder immediately after Fernandez. But the new charges against her now-estranged husband forced the court and attorneys from both sides to pivot.
Prosecutors have said that Gardner, 39, and Fernandez conspired together to hire a gunman to kill Bridegan, after years of contentious custody disputes over the twins Gardner and Bridegan shared.
But with the newly filed charges against Fernandez, Gardner’s attorneys are now arguing that he had a motive to kill Bridegan that had nothing to do with Gardner.
They said they need more time to explore the new information, and the state agreed, so Judge London Kite rescheduled Gardner’s trial for May 2027.
Prosecutors have since taken the cases for Gardner and the accused triggerman, Henry Tenon, back to the grand jury, so that they could be combined and tried together.
During that process, some of the initial charges against each of them were dropped.
Gardner was re-indicted on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, and Tenon, 65, was re-indicted on first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Three of Tenon’s charges -- child abuse, conspiracy to commit murder and accessory after the fact -- were dropped; and Gardner had two charges dropped: child abuse and solicitation to commit a capital felony.
Tenon is a former tenant at a property owned by Fernandez. He initially pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against Fernandez and Gardner but later changed his mind and withdrew his guilty plea.
