JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Court TV) — The widow of a Microsoft executive who was gunned down while driving his young daughter home will have to sit for a second deposition ahead of this summer’s murder trials for the defendants in the case.
Shanna Gardner appears in court for a pretrial hearing on June 1, 2026. (Court TV)
Shanna Gardner, 39, has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and conspiracy in the death of her ex-husband, Jared Bridegan. Jared Bridegan, a Microsoft executive, was gunned down in Jacksonville after dropping off the two children he shared with Gardner after dinner. Jared Bridegan’s youngest daughter, whom he shared with his second wife, Kirsten Bridegan, was in the car when her father was killed.
With her murder trial scheduled to begin this summer, Gardner appeared in court on Monday as her attorneys fight to have Kirsten Bridegan sit down for a second deposition with her defense team. In a motion filed with the court, Gardner’s attorneys said that Kirsten Bridegan refused to answer multiple questions during her first deposition. The defense motion accused Kirsten Bridegan of either declining to answer a question or claiming not to remember the answer more than 100 times. “For example, she testified she did not remember the year in which she appeared on the Dr. Phil Show to discuss her husband’s murder or whether she expressed an opinion on who was responsible for his death,” the motion read. “Ms. Bridegan asserted that she did not recall her Snapchat username, the dates of use, or when she communicated with [redacted] on the platform.”
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Appearing at Monday’s hearing, Kirsten Bridegan’s attorney, Doug Clifton, joined prosecutors in opposing the motion. “They’re asking for a do-over because they failed to follow up on certain topics,” Clifton said.
Clifton continued:
Ms. Bridegan testified for over five and a half hours. That’s excluding the lunch break. There are questions on hotel rooms, layouts of hotels, layouts of vacation rentals, who wore what bathing suit at the pool. Pages and pages of this. They questioned her faith and whether she was a good Mormon because of the things she said. They go on and on with her, and she sat there, answered it. She answered questions about her husband being murdered. She relived all of this and now all they’re doing is picking these little quotes out and saying that is somehow a justification to have her sit down and do another deposition so they can sit there and maybe just beat up on her a little bit more.
Mario Fernandez Saldana appears during a pretrial hearing on June 1, 2026. (Court TV)
Gardner’s attorney, Kristen Nelson, maintained that a second deposition was critical for a fair trial. “We have constitutional guarantees to due process and to effective assistance of counsel in pretrial preparation,” she said. “To suggest that it is on defense counsel in order to continuously follow up with a witness to get her to comply with the rules of civil procedure, Florida Supreme Court Precedent and constitutional guarantees is improper and burden shifting.”
Judge London Kite said she was sensitive to the widow and had compassion for her, but said the law requires her to answer the questions. “She has to answer them honestly, because she’s under oath, and she has to answer them fully to the extent that she can answer them.” To that extent, she said, she would allow a “very limited, not hours and hours” targeted deposition of Kirsten Bridegan.
Gardner’s husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, has pleaded not guilty to the same charges and appeared at a hearing just before his wife. Prosecutors in that case said they are still working to determine whether they will be calling the victim’s young child as a witness; Fernandez Saldana’s defense has objected to the child being called.
Both Fernandez Saldana and Gardner are due back in court for a pretrial hearing on July 9. Jury selection is scheduled to begin for Fernandez Saldana’s trial on Aug 10; jury selection is scheduled in Gardner’s trial on Aug. 31.
