Florida jury convicts man in planned killing of Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan

A Duval County jury found Mario Fernandez Saldana guilty of first-degree murder and solicitation to commit a capital felony in the roadside killing of Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan, closing a chapter in one of Jacksonville’s most closely watched criminal cases. The verdict came down Wednesday inside the Duval County Courthouse, more than three years after Bridegan, 33, was shot to death on a dark stretch of road in Jacksonville Beach.

Fernandez Saldana now faces sentencing. A judge ordered him to return to court on October 5 to receive his sentencing date. But the case is far from over. His wife, and Bridegan’s ex-wife, Shanna Gardner faces the same charges and is set for trial in September. The alleged triggerman, Henry Tenon, is scheduled for a separate trial next year.

What prosecutors described was not a random act of violence. It was, they argued, a calculated setup rooted in a bitter custody dispute, a plan hatched by a man and woman who wanted a father permanently out of the picture, and who allegedly hired someone to make it happen.

A tire in the road and a toddler in the back seat

In February 2022, Bridegan stopped his car after encountering a tire placed in the middle of a dark road in Jacksonville Beach. That tire, prosecutors contended, was no accident. It was bait. When Bridegan stepped out to move it, he was shot to death at close range.

His two-year-old daughter was sitting in the back seat. She was not physically injured.

The sheer coldness of the scene, a father ambushed while his toddler sat feet away, distinguishes this case from the ordinary run of violent crime. Prosecutors alleged the killing grew directly from a custody battle between Bridegan and his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, who had married Fernandez Saldana. The state’s theory: Gardner and Fernandez Saldana recruited Henry Tenon to carry out the shooting.

Three defendants, three separate proceedings

Fernandez Saldana was arrested in March 2023, roughly a year after Bridegan’s death. Gardner was arrested the following August. Both were indicted on the same charges, first-degree murder and solicitation to commit a capital felony. A judge ruled the two would face separate juries in separate trials.

That decision means the full story of who ordered what, and who knew what, will unfold across multiple courtrooms over the coming months. Gardner’s trial is set for September. Tenon, who initially pleaded guilty, later rescinded that plea and is now scheduled for trial next year.

Cases involving high-profile murder convictions often draw public attention for the severity of the crime and the complexity of the legal proceedings. This one adds another layer: the allegation that a victim’s own former spouse orchestrated his death.

A custody battle turned lethal

Prosecutors built their case around a motive as old as domestic courts themselves, a fight over children. Bridegan and Gardner had been locked in a custody dispute. The state argued that Fernandez Saldana and Gardner decided the dispute would end only one way: with Bridegan dead.

The hiring of a third party to pull the trigger, if the prosecution’s theory holds through Gardner’s and Tenon’s trials, would mark this as a contract killing dressed up as a random roadside crime. The tire in the road was the lure. Tenon, prosecutors say, was the weapon.

The betrayal alleged here, a family member arranging the murder of a co-parent, echoes other cases where killers exploited personal trust to get close enough to strike.

What remains unresolved

Wednesday’s verdict answered the central question for Fernandez Saldana: guilty. But several threads remain loose.

Tenon’s decision to rescind his guilty plea raises questions about what testimony or cooperation, if any, the state expected from him, and whether his reversal complicates Gardner’s upcoming trial. The specific terms of the original plea and the grounds for rescinding it have not been publicly detailed in the court record available so far.

Gardner’s September trial will test whether prosecutors can secure a second conviction on the same theory. Separate juries mean separate deliberations, and there is no guarantee the outcome will mirror Fernandez Saldana’s. Courts have occasionally reversed murder convictions on procedural or evidentiary grounds even after juries returned guilty verdicts.

The identity of the presiding judge, the names of the lead prosecutors and defense attorneys, and the precise details of the custody dispute that allegedly triggered the plot have not been disclosed in the available court reporting.

A young father, a calculated crime

Jared Bridegan was 33 years old. He worked as a Microsoft executive. He had a daughter young enough to need a car seat. On a February night in 2022, he did what most people would do when they saw something blocking the road, he got out to move it.

That ordinary act of civic decency cost him his life, according to the prosecution’s account. The jury agreed that Fernandez Saldana bore responsibility for making it happen.

The case stands alongside other recent crimes in which premeditated violence was masked by deception, carried out against victims who had no reason to suspect danger from the people closest to them.

Gardner’s trial in September will determine whether the jury’s judgment extends to the woman prosecutors say stood at the center of the conspiracy. Tenon’s trial, whenever it arrives, will address the man the state calls the shooter.

For now, one conviction is on the books. The justice system moved slowly, more than three years from murder to verdict, but it moved. Whether it finishes the job depends on what happens in two more courtrooms.

A two-year-old girl lost her father on a dark road because, prosecutors proved to a jury’s satisfaction, the adults who were supposed to share custody of her decided murder was easier than co-parenting. If that doesn’t clarify what the justice system is for, nothing will.