JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Court TV) — The woman accused of plotting her ex-husband’s murder smiled as she walked into court on Monday, as her defense team fights for access to the victim’s widow’s phone.
Shanna Gardner appears in court for a motions hearing on July 13, 2026. (Court TV)
Shanna Gardner, 39, is charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of her ex-husband, Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan. Gardner’s current husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, is facing the same charges as his wife and will stand trial first, with Gardner’s trial following immediately after his trial concludes.
Gardner’s defense has focused its latest pretrial motions on Jared Bridegan’s widow, Kirsten Bridegan. In June, Gardner’s defense won a battle to compel Kirsten Bridegan to sit for a second deposition to answer questions she had previously declined to answer.
Gardner’s attorneys said that second deposition revealed that Kirsten Bridegan has had ongoing communications with other witnesses in the case. Three witnesses, identified as A.B., L.B. and E.F. in court documents, have exchanged thousands of messages with the victim’s widow in the days and months since his death.
Prosecutors argued that there is no reason for anyone to have access to Kirsten Bridegan’s phone, noting that she’s classified as a victim in the case under Florida law and thus is afforded additional privacy protections. The witnesses A.B. and L.B., prosecutors said, are Gardner’s children — their phones have already been downloaded, and their contents have been made available to attorneys for all defendants in the case.
Gardner’s attorney pointed to an interaction the defense team’s private investigator had with E.F., who allegedly refused to speak to him or answer his questions “without first getting ‘permission’ from ‘Kirsten’ because she is ‘supporting Kirsten,'” Gardner’s lawyers said in their motion to the court. Assistant State Attorney Stephen Siegel challenged the timing of the request, which he called a “fishing expedition,” in part because it came two years after E.F. was originally deposed in the case. “Two years ago, there was no evidence, insinuation, suggestion of any kind of witness influence,” Siegel said. “But yet on Friday, July 3rd, a state holiday, the day before the Fourth of July, [the defense investigator] shows up at E.F.’s home.”
Kirsten Bridegan’s attorney, Doug Clifton, was also at the hearing and joined prosecutors in opposing Gardner’s request. “They just want to get stuff on her phone,” Clifton said. “They want to get as much as they can to pick at her, to beat her up on the stand, to do anything they possibly can.”
