{"id":382914,"date":"2026-08-27T21:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T21:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/382914\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T21:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T21:06:08","slug":"court-filing-gives-window-into-new-defense-strategy-for-shanna-gardner-in-jared-bridegan-murder-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/382914\/","title":{"rendered":"Court filing gives window into new defense strategy for Shanna Gardner in Jared Bridegan murder trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A motion asking for a continuance for Shanna Gardner\u2019s murder trial, which was granted Thursday by Judge London Kite<\/a>, gives a glimpse at a possible new defense strategy for Gardner\u2019s team, involving newly filed charges against her estranged husband, Mario Fernandez.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Shanna Gardner trial in Jared Bridegan murder case delayed; State will seek to try Gardner, accused gunman together<\/a><\/p>\n

Gardner, 39, has been indicted on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation to commit a capital felony and child abuse in the deadly ambush shooting of her ex-husband, Jared Bridegan. She has pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n

Fernandez<\/a> was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder and solicitation to commit a capital felony in Bridegan\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Jury convicts Mario Fernandez of murder in February 2022 ambush shooting of Jared Bridegan, his wife\u2019s ex-husband<\/a> | \u2018Truth won today,\u2019 says Jared Bridegan\u2019s widow after Mario Fernandez convicted of murder in 2022 shooting<\/a><\/p>\n

Prosecutors have said that Gardner and Fernandez conspired together to hire a gunman to kill Bridegan, Gardner\u2019s ex-husband, after years of contentious custody disputes over the twins they shared.<\/p>\n

But in the filing requesting a delay for Gardner\u2019s trial, which was slated to start jury selection Monday, Gardner\u2019s defense argues that Fernandez had a motive to kill Bridegan that had nothing to do with Gardner.<\/p>\n

According to Gardner\u2019s attorneys, that motive is related to two counts of lewd & lascivious molestation<\/a> that were filed against Fernandez shortly after his murder conviction.<\/p>\n

Because the charges were filed so recently, her attorneys argue, they need more time to investigate the abuse and how it might relate to a motive for Bridegan\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors have described Bridegan\u2019s ambush shooting as a murder-for-hire, carried out by Henry Tenon, who once lived at a rental property owned by Fernandez.<\/p>\n

Again, Judge London Kite granted the unopposed defense motion for a continuance, and Gardner\u2019s trial has been pushed back until mid-2027.<\/p>\n

Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler said in court on Thursday that the state plans to take the Tenon and Gardner cases back to the grand jury and have them joined so they can be tried together in 2027.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s likely what will happen moving forward.<\/p>\n

For now, Kite has rescheduled Gardner\u2019s trial to begin with jury selection on May 3, 2027, with three weeks of trial scheduled to start May 10, 2027.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A motion asking for a continuance for Shanna Gardner\u2019s murder trial, which was granted Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[30375,116,118,117,30372,30373,30374],"class_list":["post-382914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-henry-tenon","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jared-bridegan","tag-mario-fernandez","tag-shanna-gardner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382914","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=382914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}