Someone who was there at the bond hearing on Wednesday said that Shanna Gardner, the ex-wife of murdered Microsoft manager Jared Bridegan, wrote “good luck!” on a check that she reportedly gave to the hit man she hired to kill Bridegan in 2022.
A hearing was held in a Duval County, Florida courtroom on Wednesday to decide if Gardner, a mother of two charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, solicitation to commit a capital felony, and child endangerment, should be given bond in the murder case. Several witnesses testified.
It is said that Gardner and her second husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, paid Henry Tenon, who used to live with Fernandez-Saldana, $150,000 to kill Tenon. Based on Det. Chris Johns of the Jacksonville Beach Police Department, a $5,000 check from Gardner’s and Saldana’s LLC, First Choice Home Rentals, to Tenon on April 4, 2022, says “Kickstarter” and “Good luck!”
Johns, the lead detective in the Bridegan murder case, testified Tuesday that Mr. Tenon said this was the first of many payments that were meant to be investments in his pallet business but were actually payments for the murder.
The deal between Gardner, Saldana, and Tenon was called a “contract killing of Jared Bridegan” by the prosecutors. Gardner and Kirsten Bridegan shared two children with Gardner and two with Gardner’s wife. For killing Bridegan, Saldana is being charged with the same things as Gardner.
Bridegan was killed when he came across a flat tire in the middle of a remote road in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, on February 16, 2022. Prosecutors think it was all set up. His daughter, who was two and a half years old at the time, was in the back seat.
Traffic finally built up behind Bridegan’s car after he was shot, Johns said. That’s when good Samaritans went up to it and were able to take the toddler out, put her in another car, and give her a blanket.
The detective said that the two-year-old later said she heard a “boom boom” and that her “daddy was sick” after the shot.
Johns talked to Gardner twice after the shooting and asked her if she had any ideas about what might have happened to her ex-husband. Gardner is said to have told police that she thought Sanctuary Blvd., where Bridegan was shot, was where people in Jacksonville bought drugs. She said it might have been a botched drug deal or a gang initiation.
“I have never heard of that,” Johns said in court.
The officer also said that Gardner and Saldana supposedly tried to kill Bridegan by planning and thinking of ways for Saldana to do it over a period of years. Saldana is said to have been “within arm’s reach” of Bridegan more than once but failed to kill her, which Johns called “missed opportunities.”
Gardner “would be upset about some type of custody issue” with Bridegan and their two kids, and “Mario’s solution was always to take care of Jared,” Johns said, adding that “take care of” meant “kill Jared Bridgen.”
Gardner and Fernandez-Saldana have both said they are not guilty of killing Bridegan. They are accused of paying Henry Tenon, who used to live with Fernandez-Saldana, as a hit man. Tenon admitted that he pulled the gun and agreed to help the police catch the other people who did it.
We have reached out to Jose Baez, who is defending Gardner, and Jesse Dreicer, who is representing Fernandez-Saldana, on Fox News Digital.
