{"id":158209,"date":"2026-02-17T10:17:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T10:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/158209\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T10:17:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T10:17:16","slug":"a-timeline-of-the-jared-bridegan-murder-for-hire-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/158209\/","title":{"rendered":"A timeline of the Jared Bridegan murder-for-hire case"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Four years ago Monday, Jared Bridegan<\/a> dropped his then-9-year-old twin children off at the home of his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner<\/a>, after a \u201cdate night\u201d with their dad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He left Gardner\u2019s Jacksonville Beach home with his 2-year-old daughter, Bexley, strapped in her car seat in the back of his dark-colored SUV. They were headed back to St. Augustine.<\/p>\n

But the 33-year-old Microsoft executive never made it home.<\/p>\n

Following his normal route through the Sanctuary neighborhood<\/a>, Bridegan suddenly had to stop in the area of Jacksonville Drive, America Avenue and Sanctuary Boulevard.<\/p>\n

A tire was in the road.<\/p>\n

This tire was in the road, block Jared Bridegan’s path home (WJXT)<\/p>\n

When Bridegan stepped out of his SUV, he was ambushed by gunfire. At least one bullet missed Bexley by mere inches in her car seat.<\/p>\n

RELATED | Murder-for-hire plot included practice run along Jared Bridegan\u2019s normal route home: prosecutors<\/a><\/p>\n

Bridegan was left lying in the street next to the SUV with the door wide open, and the shooter seemed to melt into the shadows just as quickly as he had launched his ambush attack.<\/p>\n

None of the 911 callers that night mentioned seeing a shooter or a vehicle leaving the scene.<\/p>\n

LISTEN: Press play below to hear 911 calls from night of Jared Bridegan\u2019s murder (WARNING: May include graphic content)<\/p>\n

But eventually, detectives tracked down the man they say pulled the trigger.<\/p>\n

Investigators say that it was all part of a murder-for-hire plot set in motion by Gardner and her new husband, Mario Fernandez<\/a>. It was a conspiracy that began in November of 2021, according to court documents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Interactive TimelineAlleged murder-for-hire scheme<\/p>\n

According to detectives, Gardner was tired of sharing custody of her twin children with Bridegan.<\/p>\n

Fernandez<\/a>, she knew, could \u201ctake care of him\u201d because of his military background, Gardner told a friend. At least that\u2019s what the friend told investigators<\/a> as she detailed the strained marriage between Gardner and Fernandez and the contentious ongoing custody battle between Gardner and Bridegan.<\/p>\n

RELATED: A friend of Shanna Gardner said she could help in Jared Bridegan\u2019s murder case. Here\u2019s what she told investigators<\/a> | How investigators say they untangled conspiracy to kill Jared Bridegan<\/a> <\/p>\n

Investigators say that\u2019s exactly what Fernandez did, hiring Henry Tenon<\/a>, a tenant at one of his properties, to kill Bridegan.<\/p>\n

In his initial interview with police in July 2022, Tenon told investigators that he had been renting a home from Fernandez in Jacksonville\u2019s Biltmore neighborhood for several years.<\/p>\n

Tenon\u2019s original court records said he became involved in the conspiracy on Jan. 4, 2022 — just over a month before Bridegan was killed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Investigators said when Tenon was arrested on an unrelated felony driving charge in August 2022, they questioned him about Bridegan\u2019s murder and a Ford F-150 truck they had been searching for since the shooting.<\/p>\n

RELATED | Follow the money: Checks written to Jared Bridegan\u2019s admitted killer connect him to 2 accused in \u2018murder-for-hire plot\u2019<\/a> | Jared Bridegan\u2019s wife files wrongful death lawsuit against 3 accused in his murder<\/a><\/p>\n

Tenon was later arrested in Bridegan\u2019s murder, and investigators said the single link between Tenon and Bridegan was Fernandez.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Tenon pleaded guilty and admitted to being the gunman who killed Bridegan<\/a>, but he has since backtracked and filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea, telling his attorneys that he will no longer testify against Gardner or Fernandez, who are both under indictment for first-degree murder. <\/p>\n

Gardner and Fernandez have both pleaded not guilty. State prosecutors initially said they would be seeking the death penalty against both if they were convicted, but they have since taken the death penalty off the table, with the support of Bridegan\u2019s widow, Kirsten, and his family.<\/a><\/p>\n

The current trial date is set for August<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Four years ago Monday, Jared Bridegan dropped his then-9-year-old twin children off at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[30375,116,2130,118,117,30372,30373,115,30374],"class_list":{"0":"post-158209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-henry-tenon","9":"tag-jacksonville","10":"tag-jacksonville-beach","11":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","12":"tag-jacksonville-news","13":"tag-jared-bridegan","14":"tag-mario-fernandez","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-shanna-gardner"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158209","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=158209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}