{"id":155169,"date":"2026-02-14T04:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T04:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/155169\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T04:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T04:30:09","slug":"legal-expert-weighs-in-after-henry-tenon-withdraws-guilty-plea-in-jared-bridegan-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/155169\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal expert weighs in after Henry Tenon withdraws guilty plea in Jared Bridegan case"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Henry Tenon, the man who pleaded guilty to pulling the trigger in the 2022 murder-for-hire killing of Jared Bridegan in Jacksonville Beach, is now seeking to withdraw his guilty plea. <\/a><\/p>\n

This unexpected move could significantly impact the prosecution\u2019s case against Shanna Gardner and Mario Fernandez, who are accused of orchestrating the murder.<\/p>\n

Tenon submitted a three-page motion to withdraw his plea on Friday morning, but the document offers little explanation beyond his refusal to testify against Gardner and Fernandez. He has not claimed coercion, threats, misunderstanding of his rights, or any other common reasons for reversing a plea. <\/p>\n

Instead, Tenon simply stated he no longer wants to participate in the deal he originally entered.<\/p>\n

Gene Nichols, an attorney not involved in the case but familiar with legal proceedings, described this development as a major issue for the state of Florida. <\/p>\n

\u201cTheir key witness is now saying I am not going to get on the stand and I don\u2019t care what happens to me,\u201d Nichols said, explaining that Tenon\u2019s decision to back out of testifying throws a significant wrench into the state\u2019s plans. <\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing that Tenon is a huge lynchpin and he is a part of blaming the other two, and if he\u2019s not going to get up on the stand to blame the other, it\u2019s definitely going to cause the state to have to pivot a tremendous amount,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Under the original plea deal, Tenon faced a minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of life in prison. If the court allows him to withdraw his plea, Nichols noted that Tenon could be exposing himself to a life sentence without the benefit of a deal.<\/p>\n

Nichols also offered insight into why defendants sometimes reverse their pleas. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t want to go to prison when everybody knows that they\u2019ve testified against others. And so that could be one of the reasons. He could have a change of heart. He could have a change of mind. He may have given a statement that wasn\u2019t true in the first place. We just don\u2019t know at this point in time,\u201d Nichols said.<\/p>\n

Tenon has yet to sit for a deposition, and defense attorneys are seeking more information from him. The case remains fluid as the court prepares to consider Tenon\u2019s motion.<\/p>\n

A status hearing is scheduled for Feb. 17 at 9 a.m. Tenon\u2019s current attorney has not responded to requests for comment, and the state attorney\u2019s office deferred questions about the motion to the upcoming hearing.<\/p>\n

The Justice For Jared Bridegan Instagram account posted a series of stories about Tenon\u2019s plea withdrawal, concluding with the message, \u201cWe remain unwavering. Be still & know that I am God.\u201d <\/p>\n

The account did not respond to interview requests.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Henry Tenon, the man who pleaded guilty to pulling the trigger in the 2022…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8219,30375,116,2130,118,117,30372,30373,30374],"class_list":{"0":"post-155169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-court","9":"tag-henry-tenon","10":"tag-jacksonville","11":"tag-jacksonville-beach","12":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","13":"tag-jacksonville-news","14":"tag-jared-bridegan","15":"tag-mario-fernandez","16":"tag-shanna-gardner"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}