Former Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan’s ex-wife, Shanna Lee Gardner, has now been charged in his ambush death in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.
State Attorney Melissa Nelson held a very brief news conference Thursday announcing the final update to the high-profile case. She said prosecutors will seek the death penalty against her as well as having already advised they are doing with her co-defendant husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana.
Fernandez Saldana, 35, was arrested on March 16 in Orange County on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation to commit a capital felony and child abuse.
Those are the same charges Gardner, 36, now faces. Fernandez Saldana’s arrest came the same day Nelson announced that Henry Arthur Tenon, 62, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the shooting and was the triggerman. He was the first one charged in the case on Jan. 25.
Fernandez Saldana and Tenon are accused of orchestrating the attack on Bridegan, who was shot on Feb. 16, 2022, after dropping his twin children off at Mario and Shanna’s Jacksonville Beach home. Bridegan was on his way home to St. Augustine, Florida, with his 2-year-old daughter when he stopped because of a tire on Sanctuary Road.
Tenon agreed to testify against Fernandez Saldana and any others who may have been involved in the 2022 ambush of Bridegan, 33. Tenon had rented a home from Fernandez Saldana, Nelson said.
In 2018 Fernandez Saldana married Gardner, whose parents recently said they have been estranged for some time. Gardner, who had moved to Washington state with her children after intense media coverage of the case, has not spoken to the Times-Union, a member of the USA TODAY Network, since June when she said she wanted people to know where she was coming from considering all of the attention.
Authorities have not discussed motive, but an arrest warrant states “the investigation into Bridegan’s background revealed a highly acrimonious divorce from his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, and a contentious relationship with both Gardner and Fernandez Saldana.”
Early in the investigation, police said they didn’t think the tire being in the road there was an accident. It was a dark, residential road that Bridegan routinely took to get to Butler Boulevard. When he turned his hazard lights on and got out to move it, he was immediately gunned down, police said. The toddler was unharmed in her safety seat and nothing appeared to be stolen.
