Florida trial underway in Microsoft executive’s murder allegedly hatched by his ex-wife and her husband

The fatal shooting of a Microsoft design manager on a dark Florida road was a “targeted ambush” hatched by his ex-wife and her husband, following years of post-marriage strife over religion and how to raise twin children, a prosecutor told jurors Monday.

Jared Bridegan, 33, was killed in Jacksonville Beach in 2022 when he got out of his vehicle to remove a tire that was placed in the road while his 2-year-old daughter was strapped in her car seat.

More than four years later, Mario Fernandez Saldana, 38, is on trial in Duval County court for first-degree murder and solicitation of murder. He’s accused of arranging Bridegan’s death by hiring a gunman.

Bridegan’s former wife, Shanna Gardner, 39, was arrested in August 2023 in Washington and is facing charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation to commit murder, and child abuse, CBS affiliate WJAX-TV reported. She has pleaded not guilty and her trial will begin in September.

“The killer was a stranger to Jared Bridegan. The murder was personal,” Assistant State Attorney Christina Simak Stifler said.

“A tire in the road, a dark place,” she said in her opening remarks. “No one would see, and no one would know, and no one would trace it back to those responsible. … The architects of Jared Bridegan’s murder intended it to be a perfect crime and it almost was.”

But defense attorney James Hill told jurors that Fernandez Saldana, an Army veteran, had no motive to get rid of Bridegan and his actions shortly after the killing — a road trip to Pennsylvania and back — didn’t resemble that of a criminal schemer “running from the law.”

“He had access to a lot of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Hill said, referring to his wife Gardner’s trust fund. “He could have fled the country.”

In her opening remarks, Stifler traced the bitter relationship between Bridegan and Gardner, the execution-style killing and the difficulty of trying to solve a shocking homicide with no witnesses. The victim, she said, had no obvious enemies and was a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Bridegan and Gardner, who had twin children, were divorced in 2015. The end of the marriage, however, led to years of acrimony about how to jointly raise their kids, from religion to doctors’ appointments and even school conferences, Stifler said.

She said Gardner did not want her children involved with the Mormon church.

“They fought over everything. … It was nasty. It was petty. It was not good on both sides,” the prosecutor said of the relationship.

Jared Bridegan remarried and had two more children. Gardner, meanwhile, married Fernandez Saldana, who was a maintenance man at a gym where she worked out.  

“It was pretty terrible,” Bridegan’s second wife, Kirsten Bridegan, testified. “There was absolutely no trust, so everything was in writing. Texts, email. We did not speak in person, like at school events. Didn’t do phone calls.”

Jared Bridegan was attacked shortly after returning the 9-year-old twins to Gardner’s home, following a regular “date night” with their children.

He was driving home to St. Augustine with one of two children he had with Kirsten Bridegan when he stopped his Volkswagen Atlas and put on his warning lights to remove a tire from the road. Jared Bridegan was shot twice moments later.

The child later recalled hearing “loud booms” and asking, “Are police going to help my daddy?” Stifler said.

The first trial witness, Jonelle Cruz, said that she comforted Jared Bridegan’s daughter with a blanket in a separate vehicle while her boyfriend tried to figure out what had happened.

“She was shaking. She was very worried about her dad,” Cruz testified.

Later that night, Kirsten Bridegan said she followed her “gut instinct” and urged police to investigate Gardner and Fernandez Saldana.

A few months later, Stifler said, police discovered a lead “that blew the case open” — a tire at a rental property owned by Fernandez Saldana. Investigators found the tire was similar to the tire that blocked Bridegan’s Volkswagen Atlas on his drive home.

Police matched DNA on the tires to Henry Tenon, a former tenant. Records revealed that he was paid $10,000 by Fernandez Saldana after the murder, though the checks said the work was for landscaping, roof repair and a business idea. 

Tenon was charged as the gunman.

“This was a planned, targeted ambush and murder,” Jacksonville Beach Police Department Chief Gene Paul Smith said after Tenon was arrested in 2023.

Hill, the defense lawyer, disputed anything nefarious, telling the jury: “Mario Fernandez has hired him to do work, not murder.” 

Tenon, 65, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2023 and agreed to testify against Fernandez Saldana. But he withdrew the plea earlier this year and will get his own trial in 2027.

Stifler said Gardner, who was from a wealthy family, relocated to Washington state with her children after Jared Bridegan’s death. Fernandez Saldana, meanwhile, moved to Orlando.

“Ms. Gardner got what she wanted: full control over her children and the freedom to move out of Jacksonville, Florida,” the prosecutor said.

Jared Bridegan was chief technology officer at Utah-based Clean Simple Eats before working at Microsoft for less than a year before his death, his wife said.