JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Opening statements began Monday morning in the first trial related to the killing of St. Johns County father of four, Jared Bridegan.
The first suspect on trial is Mario Fernandez Saldana, who is the estranged husband of Bridegan’s ex-wife, Shanna Gardner.
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Last week, lawyers finished the work of screening the jury pool for Fernandez Saldana’s trial.
The final panel includes twelve jurors and four alternates.
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Fernandez Saldana is accused of hiring the hitman who killed Bridegan.
You’ll also be able to watch the trial by streaming it on the Action News Jax website (click on the link below), mobile and connected TV apps, and on our YouTube channel.
LIVE UPDATES:
11:22 a.m.: John Biggerstaff has a Google search related to a 10 mm. Hill tells the jury they need to pay attention to what he did not search.
11:18 a.m.: Hill told the jury they have to be focused on Fernandez Saldana, not Tenon or Gardner.
11:16 a.m.: Hill said the relationship between Gardner and Fernandez Saldana was not perfect, but they made it work.
11:15 a.m.: Hill said to the jury that they are going to hear that Gardner and Fernandez Saldana’s marriage wasn’t always perfect. Hill said that once new spouses were in the picture, there was a family text chain.
11:13 a.m.: Hill details the history of those involved in the case:
April 2010: Bridegan and Gardner are married2015: Gardner and Bridegan get divorced2017: Bridegan and Kirsten Bridegan get married2018: Gardner and Fernandez Saldana get married
11:12 a.m.: This case must not be decided because you feel sorry or anger for someone, Hill told the jury, the verdict must be based on evidence with the law.
11:09 a.m.: “To get to the first charge, you have to go through the second charge,” Hill said of the second charge, criminal citation, that Fernandez Saldana is facing.
11:08 a.m.: Hill showed a slide that explained how Fernandez could be considered a principal in the crime. It said, in part, If Fernandez Saldana helped Tenon commit a crime and must be treated as if he had done all the things the other person or persons did if the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt:
The defendant intended the crime to occur andthe defendant did some act or said something that was intended to and that did incite, cause, encourage, assist, or advise the other person or persons to actually commit the crime.
11:07 a.m.: Hill goes through what the state must prove in count one, murder in the first-degree:
Jared Bridegan is deadThe death was caused by the criminal act of Mario Enrique Fernandez SaldanaThere was a premeditated killing of Jared Bridegan.
11:05 a.m.: “Jared Bridegan was murdered. He was murdered by Henry Tenon. There will be no dispute of those facts,” Hill said.
11:05 a.m.: Attorney James Hill, part of the defense for Mario Fernandez Saldana, begins opening statements.
10:42 a.m. Stifler said the jury must determine if Fernandez Saldana had the intent to have Bridegan killed and did he hire someone to kill him. The jury must consider if Fernandez Saldana was principal to the death of Bridegan.
10:41 a.m.: Stifler said of Bridegan’s murder, “This is not a true crime podcast, this is not a TV show, this is real life.”
10:38 a.m.: Fernandez Saldana has no cellular data for the time of the murder. There is data before and after, Stifler said, but not during.
10:32 a.m.: Three checks were in Tenon’s truck, Stifler said. Three checks were deposited by Tenon, given by Fernandez Saldana.
10:29 a.m.: Fernandez Saldana spent time with Biggerstaff the day after the murder, Stifler said. Biggerstaff had to surrender guns after he was convicted of a felony and gave them to his son, Juan Biggerstaff. One of those guns was a 10mm.
10:27 a.m.: John Biggerstaff was a former Navy cryptologist and JSO officer before being prosecuted for a felony, Stifler said. Fernandez Saldana was at Biggerstaff’s house the night before the murder.
10:25 a.m.: The killer was a stranger to Bridegan, Stifler said. The link between those two is Fernandez Saldana.
10:21 a.m.: Tenon is a convicted felon, a pallet manufacturer, Stifler said, got paid per piece. Tenon was struggling financially. In the majority of 2022, he was essentially homeless, sleeping on the couch at Potomac Avenue. Stifler said the current tenant let him. She said Tenon is only connected to Bridegan from Fernandez Saldana.
10:19 a.m.: Henry Tenon showed up, Stifler said. Police noticed that an old tire was on the side of the house. They took that tire, collected it, and compared it to the tire left at the crime scene. They realized it was the same make and model with the same DOT model.
10:18 a.m.: In July 2022, police went to a home at 5239 Potomac Avenue in Jacksonville, a home owned by Fernandez Saldana and managed by First Choice Rentals LLC, Stifler said.
10:17 a.m.: Every other Wednesday, Bridegan would go pick up the twins and have “date night.” Stifler said the killer would have known that Kirsten Bridegan would not be going on the date night because she gave birth to their other child six months prior.
10:14 a.m.: The time and place of Bridegan’s death was a clue, as the path that Bridegan took from Marsh Inlet to Sanctuary is winding, Stifler said. The killer had to have known that Bridegan would be in Jacksonville Beach that night, that he would drive a black Volkswagen Atlas, and there are not many people that knew he would be at that place at that time.
10:12 a.m.: The type of gun used in Bridegan’s killing is not the most popular handgun, Stifler said.
10:10 a.m.: Stifler said the blue truck was seen with an object in its bed, what appears to be a tire. Jacksonville Beach police sent out pictures of the truck and with no license plate readers, the trail of the truck went cold, she said.
10:08 a.m.: The blue Ford 150 with a tan stripe passed the spot where Bridegan was killed an hour before Bridegan’s Volkswagen Atlas was in the area, Stifler said.
10:05 a.m.: Stifler said he lived a quiet life in Nocatee and was devoutly Mormon.
10:04 a.m.: Jacksonville Beach detectives learned Bridegan was a risk adverse person, was not in gambling debt, had no criminal record, no drug records, no evidence he was having an affair, Stifler said.
9:56 a.m.: Before Bridegan’s death, Fernandez Saldana and Gardner were about to separate. Fernandez Saldana transferred $50,000 from Gardner’s trust into his own personal banking account, Stifler said. Fernandez Saldana sold all of the assets they acquired during the marriage. Gardner got full control over her children and left Florida to go back to Utah and Fernandez Saldana moved to Orlando, Stifler said.
9:55 a.m.: Gardner wanted full custody of the twins and Fernandez Saldana told Bridegan that the kids would be better without him. Gardner’s parents set up a trust fund, of which Fernandez Saldana was the trustee, Stifler said.
9:54 a.m. Gardner and Fernandez Saldana met in a gym and got married quick, Stifler said. Fernandez Saldana married Gardner to help her with her situation with Bridegan, as they were in and out of court for years, Stifler said.
9:52 a.m.: It will become apparent quickly that no one wanted Bridegan dead, no one had a motive to kill him except for Gardner and Fernandez, Stifler said. Bridegan and Gardner were Mormons and got married quick, Stifler said. One of their twins had a heart condition and they moved to Jacksonville. Bridegan wanted to raise their children in the church; Gardner questioned that and they got divorced.
9:48 a.m.: Stifler said that four-and-a-half years later, it goes without saying that Bridegan’s death was an ambush, and the manner of Bridegan’s death was not consistent with a robbery.
9:45 a.m.: Bexley was an articulate child and, Stifler said, told the people who came to help her, ‘Something happened to my daddy. I heard loud booms. My daddy is hurt, my daddy is on the ground. Are police going to help my daddy?’
9:44 a.m.: Stifler said the person who shot Bridegan stepped out of the darkness and fired four 10mm bullets, two of which went into the vehicle inches from Bexley, Bridegan’s then-2-year-old daughter.
9:41 a.m.: Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler delivered opening statements on behalf of the prosecution.
Stifler said The Sanctuary neighborhood in Jacksonville Beach is exactly what it sounds like.
“But on the night of Feb. 16, it was anything but that for Jared Bridegan,” she said. “Instead, it was the site of his execution.
9 a.m.: Court is in session.
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<The killing of Jared Bridegan
Jared Bridegan, a St. Johns County father of four, was gunned down Feb. 16, 2022, in Jacksonville Beach. He had just taken his twins, Abby and Liam, whom he shared with ex-wife Shanna Gardner, and his then-2-year-old Bexley, his daughter with wife Kirsten Bridegan, to dinner.
The software engineer had just dropped off the twins at Gardner’s house when he encountered a tire on Sanctuary Boulevard, a one-way road in Jacksonville Beach. He was headed home to his second wife, Kirsten Bridegan, with whom he shared children Bexley and London.
Jacksonville Beach Police Chief Gene Paul Smith said during the announcement of the first arrest in January 2023, that “the tire was purposely placed there to make him stop, which he did.”
“Tragically he began to exit his vehicle to move the tire and he was gunned down in cold blood,” Smith said. Bridegan was shot several times while Bexley was still strapped into a car seat in the back seat of Bridegan’s car.
The suspects
Mario Fernandez Saldana, Gardner’s estranged husband, was arrested in March 2023 on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, child abuse, and solicitation to commit a capital felony. He’s accused of hiring Henry Tenon to kill Jared Bridegan.
In July 2026, two of the charges Fernandez Saldana was facing, child abuse and conspiracy to commit murder, were dropped. He has pleaded not guilty to the remaining charges he’s facing. His trial begins Aug. 10, 2026 with jury selection.
Henry Tenon’s arrest in connection to Bridegan’s murder was announced in January 2023. He was arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, accessory after the fact to a capital felony, child abuse, and second-degree murder. He’s accused of shooting and killing Jared Bridegan.
Tenon, who rented a home from Fernandez Saldana, initially agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder. In February 2026, Tenon decided to withdraw his guilty plea. He is now set to go to trial in March 2027.
Shanna Gardner was arrested in August 2023 in Washington and is facing charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation to commit murder, and child abuse. She has pleaded not guilty to those charges.
Gardner’s trial is set to take place after her estranged husband’s trial concludes. Jury selection for her trial is set to begin Aug. 31, 2026.
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