JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Court TV) — A man is standing trial in Florida on charges that he plotted and funded a murder-for-hire that killed Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan.
Bridegan was shot to death on Feb. 16, 2022, while driving home with the 2-year-old child he shared with his second wife. Bridegan had just dropped his older children off at the home of his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, when he came across a tire in the road. That tire wasn’t placed there randomly, prosecutors said during their opening statement on Monday; they said it had been placed there as a trap to lure the victim to his death.
Mario Fernandez Saldana sits in court during opening statements in his trial on Aug. 17, 2026. (Court TV)
Mario Fernandez Saldana, 38, who married Gardner after her divorce from Bridegan, is the first of three defendants to stand trial for the victim’s death. Investigators say Fernandez and Gardner conspired together to hire a gunman, Henry Tenon, to kill Bridegan.
Prosecutor Christina Stifler walked through the victim’s death in her opening statement, describing the shooting as a “targeted ambush, a planned tactical ambush.” When Bridegan got out of the car to move the tire, Stifler said, four shots were fired by “a figure from the darkness.” Two of the bullets went into Bridegan’s car, narrowly missing the 2-year-old in her car seat; the other two killed Bridegan, who was left facedown on the pavement.
Two people who happened upon Bridegan’s car went to see what happened and found the child, still strapped in the car. “She was shaking,” Stifler said. The child allegedly told the witnesses who saw her, “Something happened to my daddy. I heard loud booms. My daddy’s hurt. My daddy’s on the ground.”
It took police more than a year to identify Fernandez and Gardner as suspects in the case. “The architects of Jared Bridegan’s murder intended it to be the perfect crime,” Stifler said. “And it almost was.”
Investigators quickly determined Bridegan’s murder was not a robbery — his wedding ring, Apple Watch, phone and debit cards were all left at the scene. There was no evidence to suggest there had been a fight or road rage incident. “No one in the world truly wanted Jared Bridegan dead,” Stifler said. “No one in the world truly benefited from his death. No one in the world truly had the motive to kill him, except for Gardner and Fernandez.”
Stifler said that Gardner and Bridegan had an acrimonious relationship that kept them in and out of court for years after their divorce. Gardner’s second marriage to Fernandez, Stifler said, was one of convenience. “It was a deal,” she said. “His words — not mine. You’ll hear that he told police that he married Ms. Gardner to help her with the kids, to help her with the ‘Jared situation.'”
James Hill, one of Fernandez’s attorneys, denied that his client had any involvement in the victim’s death. “Mario Fernandez had no desire to murder Jared Bridegan,” he said. “Mario Fernandez had no motive to murder Jared Bridegan. Mario Fernandez did not benefit from the murder of Jared Bridegan. Simply put, ladies and gentleman, Mario Fernandez had no involvement in the murder of Jared Bridegan.”
Hill told the jury that the evidence points squarely at the alleged gunman and will not show any definitive link to his client.
