OAN’s Abril Elfi
1:15 PM – Thursday, August 17, 2023
The ex-wife of Microsoft Executive Jared Bridegan, who was shot and killed last year in a mysterious turn of events, was arrested in connection to his murder.
On Thursday, Shanna Gardner-Fernandez was charged by a grand jury with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and child endangerment.
She was arrested in Washington state and will be transferred back to Duval County, Florida, where she has been indicted.
Bridegan’s widow, Kristen Bridegan, commented on the news of the recent arrest.
“For 547 days, we hoped and prayed that this day would come,” she told reporters. “Shanna’s arrest ends one horrific chapter of our pursuit for justice for Jared and now we have opened a new one. This next chapter will be excruciating. We are confident in the ability of the State’s Attorney’s Office and law enforcement to bring truth to light. We expect to see justice carried out to the fullest extent of the law.”
Jared was murdered back in February 2022 after he had dropped off the children he shares with Gardner-Fernandez at her house and was headed back to the residence he lived at with his current wife, Kristen.
According to investigators, he pulled over his car after he saw a tire in the middle of the road, and when he got out to try and move it, he was shot multiple times in front of his two-year-old daughter, Bexley.
Court documents stated that the bullets were inches away from also hitting the remaining toddler still in the car with him. She was left alone for several minutes until someone drove by and immediately called the police.
It was reported that even though Gardner-Fernandez and Jared got divorced in 2015, they were currently in a tumultuous custody battle over their twins.
Mario Saldana-Fernandez, Gardner-Fernandez’s new husband, was detained in March in relation to the killing. Police claimed that he planned Bridegan’s murder with a tenant from one of his rental homes named Henry Tenon.
He allegedly wrote Tenon three checks, and phone records revealed that the two men spoke on the phone more than 70 times both before and after the murder.
Tenon, a convicted felon, was taken into custody in January and volunteered to work with authorities after confessing to firing the gun. He was charged with conspiracy to commit murder, second-degree murder with a weapon, accessory after the fact to a capital felony, and child abuse.
After the incident, Gardner-Fernandez moved to Washington state away from the crime’s location as well as away from Saldana-Fernandez.
Additionally, after a tattoo business owner came forward and claimed that the ex-wife had previously asked about a means to “get rid of” Bridegan, suspicions regarding Gardner-Fernandez spiked.
Saldana-Fernandez was previously indicted for their alleged involvement in the murder.
When Saldana-Fernandez was arraigned in July, he had entered a non-guilty plea. According to the prosecution, he will not be given a plea agreement.
Prosecutors say they will push for the death penalty for both Gardner-Fernandez and her husband, Saldana-Fernandez.
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