Ex-wife's husband faces trial for Microsoft manager's murder-for-hire ambush

The trial of Mario Fernandez Saldana, 38, commenced on Monday in Jacksonville, Florida, more than four years after the killing of Jared Bridegan. Bridegan, a 33-year-old Microsoft design manager, was fatally shot in Jacksonville Beach in 2022 after stopping to move a tire that had been deliberately placed in the road. His 2-year-old child was in a car seat inside the vehicle at the time of the ambush. Fernandez Saldana is the current husband of Bridegan's ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, 39, who is also charged with murder and is scheduled to stand trial in September. The couple is accused of orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot against Bridegan.

Investigators allege that the motive for the killing stemmed from a bitter custody dispute. Bridegan and Gardner divorced in 2015, and the years that followed were marked by intense acrimony over the parenting of their two children. Court documents summarized by Judge London Kite after a 2024 bond hearing stated that police found Gardner hated Bridegan, resented sharing custody, and wanted him dead. The attack occurred shortly after Bridegan had returned the couple's 9-year-old twins to Gardner's home following a regular visit. He was then driving to his home in St. Augustine with one of the two children he shared with his second wife, Kirsten Bridegan, whom he married in 2017.

The alleged gunman, Henry Tenon, 65, was identified by authorities as the person who carried out the shooting. Tenon initially pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2023 and agreed to testify against Fernandez Saldana as part of a cooperation agreement. However, he later withdrew that plea earlier this year and is now scheduled for his own trial in 2027. Evidence linking Tenon to the crime includes his DNA found on the tire used to block Bridegan's path. Financial records also indicate that Tenon received at least $10,000 from Gardner and Fernandez Saldana following Bridegan's death, supporting the murder-for-hire allegation.

The case has drawn significant attention due to the calculated nature of the crime and the involvement of a child. Bridegan was ambushed on a dark road after being forced to exit his vehicle, leaving his toddler as a witness. Before his death, Bridegan had worked as the chief technology officer at Utah-based Clean Simple Eats before joining Microsoft. His widow, Kirsten Bridegan, has publicly mourned him, expressing sorrow that his life was taken after he had found happiness. The separate trials for Fernandez Saldana and Gardner will determine their individual culpability in a plot that prosecutors describe as a premeditated execution fueled by a custody battle.