Alleged co-architect of fatal ambush of Microsoft manager found guilty
A man accused of helping orchestrate the murder of a Microsoft manager who prosecutors said was ambushed on a Florida road and shot execution-style was found guilty in the first trial over the slaying.
Jared Bridegan, 33, was killed in Jacksonville Beach in February 2022 while returning home from dropping off his twins at his ex-wife's home, prosecutors said. He was fatally shot after getting out of his vehicle to move a tire that was in the road, while the 2-year-old girl he shared with his second wife was in her car seat, authorities said.
A Duval County jury on Wednesday found Mario Fernandez Saldana guilty of first-degree murder and solicitation in connection with Bridegan's death.
"Truth was seen in that courtroom -- the jury saw that truth and they acted accordingly … and I am grateful for that," Jared Bridegan's widow, Kirsten Bridegan, told reporters after the verdict.
"Justice has been served in part, and we look forward to the rest of justice being served," she said.
Fernandez Saldana -- who was married to Jared Bridegan's ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, at the time of the killing -- is one of three people charged with the murder of the St. Augustine father of four. Prosecutors allege that he and Gardner were the "architects" of the fatal shooting and that the third individual charged -- Fernandez-Saldana's former tenant, Henry Tenon -- fired the gun.
Prosecutors alleged that Fernandez Saldana, 38, solicited Tenon to commit the shooting. They said he was in frequent contact with Tenon in the months leading up to the shooting and gave him at least $10,000 afterward. They also allege he helped procure the gun used in the shooting.
Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler argued that the totality of the evidence pointed to Fernandez Saldana being involved in the murder-for-hire plot -- which they said followed "years of animosity" and a "high-conflict" custody dispute over Jared Bridegan and Gardner's twins.
"This plan was designed specifically so that it would never tie back to Mario Fernandez," she said during her closing argument on Tuesday. "Until it didn't."
Stifler said that in a "stroke of luck" and "good detective work," investigators found a tire at Fernandez Saldana's rental property where Tenon had lived that matched the one found at the crime scene. Tenon's DNA was also found on the tire at the crime scene, prosecutors said.
"How did they find Henry Tenon? They found him through the defendant. They found him through his call records, through his rental property. They found the killer through Mario Fernandez, not independently," Stifler said. "He's the connecting thread in all of this."
After Tenon was arrested, Stifler alleged that Fernandez Saldana began to "distance" himself from the crime by wiping his phone and trying to sell the rental property, arguing that that showed consciousness of guilt.
Defense attorney Jesse Dreicer argued that Fernandez Saldana had no motive and that there was no evidence connecting him to the crime.
"Mario Fernandez had no motive, he had no desire, he had no reason and he certainly gained no benefit from the death of Jared Bridegan," Dreicer said during his closing argument.
Dreicer urged jurors to ask themselves what facts they heard that Fernandez Saldana wanted Jared Bridegan killed or solicited Tenon to commit the crime.
"I'm going to submit to you, you didn't. It did not happen. There was no evidence," he said.
Stifler told jurors that there is no DNA, witness or footage that connects Fernandez Saldana to the crime scene "because of the nature of this crime."
"If you outsource your murder, you are doing it so that your DNA and your footprints and your fingerprints are nowhere near the crime," she said.
Fernandez Saldana pleaded not guilty and did not testify in his own defense.
Tenon, 65, was not available as a witness in the case, prosecutors told jurors. He initially pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was listed as a testifying co-defendant in Fernandez Saldana and Gardner's trials, though he later withdrew his plea and informed his counsel that he will not testify, according to a court filing. He is set to go on trial next year.
Gardner, 39, who moved to Washington in the wake of the shooting, was arrested in the state in August 2023. She has pleaded not guilty and is set to go on trial in September.
Jared Bridegan was a senior design manager at Microsoft, according to his obituary. His widow, Kirsten Bridegan, with whom he had two children, testified during Fernandez Saldana's trial that the co-parenting relationship between the two couples was "pretty terrible" and "very tense."
