{"id":359545,"date":"2026-08-01T01:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T01:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/359545\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T01:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T01:16:08","slug":"a-lot-of-decisions-could-be-made-attorney-weighs-in-on-new-evidence-in-bridegan-murder-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/359545\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A lot of decisions could be made\u2019: Attorney weighs in on new evidence in Bridegan murder case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2026\/07\/31\/prosecutor-drops-bombshell-in-jared-bridegan-murder-for-hire-case-accused-gunman-was-not-alone-on-night-of-shooting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2026\/07\/31\/prosecutor-drops-bombshell-in-jared-bridegan-murder-for-hire-case-accused-gunman-was-not-alone-on-night-of-shooting\/\">Prosecutors revealed Friday<\/a> that the alleged gunman in the 2022 murder of Jared Bridegan may not have acted alone, a significant development disclosed during a pretrial hearing less than two weeks before the first of three trials is set to begin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Assistant State Attorney Alan Mizrahi made the disclosure during Mario Fernandez\u2019s pretrial hearing Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cWe also have overwhelming evidence that there was a conspiracy in this case,\u201d Mizrahi said. \u201cWe know that multiple people are involved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What prosecutors say happened<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Bridegan was killed in an ambush shooting in Jacksonville Beach in February 2022. Prosecutors say Henry Tenon left a tire in the road to force Bridegan out of his SUV before firing the fatal shots.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">On Friday, the state went further about what happened after the shooting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cWhen the victim was killed, there is a person that fled on foot and a person that fled in a vehicle,\u201d Mizrahi said in court. \u201cWe know that Henry Tenon left his DNA behind on that tire, and we know that Henry Tenon was not driving the pick-up truck that fled the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Fernandez, his ex-wife Shanna Gardner \u2014 who was also previously married to Bridegan \u2014 and Tenon are all charged with first-degree murder in the case.<\/p>\n<p>Defense likely not surprised, attorney says<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">News4JAX spoke with Jacksonville attorney Shannon Schott, who\u2019s not associated with the case, about what the development could mean heading into trial.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cBased on the fact that there was not a huge reaction from the defense during the hearing, it is likely that the defense was already aware that this is what the state was going to argue,\u201d Schott said. \u201cCertainly the state has no duty to tell the defense every single point that they\u2019re going to argue. However, they do have to clearly charge a defendant and give them the ability to prepare.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Schott added there are still open questions about what the state knew and when, and what has been shared with the defense.<\/p>\n<p>What to watch as trial approaches<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">With the trial starting in less than two weeks, Schott said a last-minute deal from one of the three defendants is not out of the question.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be surprised if one of the three defendants decided to cooperate on the verge of trial,\u201d she said. \u201cTen days is a lot of time in what we do. A lot of changes could be made, a lot of decisions could be made. And certainly the outcome of this case will absolutely impact the other two defendants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Earlier this week, two of Fernandez\u2019s charges \u2014 conspiracy to commit murder and child abuse \u2014 were dropped. He still faces charges of first-degree murder and solicitation to commit a capital felony.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Jury selection in Fernandez\u2019s trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 10.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Prosecutors revealed Friday that the alleged gunman in the 2022 murder of Jared Bridegan may&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6275,30375,116,2130,118,117,30372,30373,115,30374],"class_list":["post-359545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-attorney","tag-henry-tenon","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-beach","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jared-bridegan","tag-mario-fernandez","tag-news","tag-shanna-gardner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359545","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=359545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}