{"id":396393,"date":"2026-09-11T00:56:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T00:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/396393\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T00:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T00:56:15","slug":"judge-refuses-to-step-aside-in-shanna-gardner-trial-for-death-of-jared-bridegan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/396393\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge refuses to step aside in Shanna Gardner trial for death of Jared Bridegan"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Judge London Kite refused Thursday to step aside from the Shanna Gardner<\/a> murder case after both prosecutors and Jared Bridegan\u2019s widow asked her to recuse herself over her handling of a dispute involving Kirsten Bridegan\u2019s cellphone.<\/p>\n

Kite denied separate motions filed by the State of Florida and Kirsten Bridegan, ruling that both were legally insufficient. The judge did not address the factual allegations in detail.<\/p>\n

Gardner, Jared Bridegan\u2019s ex-wife, is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation to commit a capital felony and child abuse in the February 2022 ambush shooting that left Bridegan dead on a dark stretch of road in Jacksonville Beach. <\/p>\n

Her trial is now set for May 2027<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gardner\u2019s second husband, Mario Fernandez, was convicted last month<\/a> of first-degree murder and solicitation to commit a capital felony in Bridegan\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Attorneys for Mario Fernandez seek new trial after his conviction in February 2022 ambush shooting of Jared Bridegan<\/a><\/p>\n

Ahead of her trial, Gardner\u2019s defense team has been seeking private messages and other information from Kirsten Bridegan\u2019s phone and social media accounts that attorneys said could be relevant to Gardner\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n

Bridegan, a potential prosecution witness, opposed the request. Her attorney, Douglas Clifton, argued that Florida\u2019s victims\u2019 rights law, known as Marsy\u2019s Law, protects her from harassment, intimidation and the disclosure of private information.<\/p>\n

But Kite ordered Bridegan to turn over her cellphone<\/a> by 9 a.m. Aug. 21. and denied Bridegan\u2019s request to stay the cellphone order shortly before the deadline.<\/p>\n

When Bridegan did not turn over the phone, Kite interrupted the Fernandez trial<\/a> and held an emergency hearing. Gardner\u2019s attorneys then asked the judge to begin contempt proceedings against Bridegan.<\/p>\n

Kite scheduled a contempt hearing for later that day. Before it could take place, the Fifth District Court of Appeal imposed a stay<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The State and Kirsten Bridegan argued in their motions to have Kite removed from the case that Kite\u2019s handling of the cellphone dispute created an objectively reasonable fear that she could not fairly oversee future proceedings involving Kirsten Bridegan, including Gardner\u2019s trial, in which Bridegan is expected to testify as a material witness for the prosecution.<\/p>\n

Bridegan\u2019s motion argued that Kite had appeared to prejudge whether Kirsten Bridegan should be held in criminal contempt. She cited the short deadline to surrender the phone, the judge\u2019s refusal to wait for an appellate ruling and the decision to schedule a same-day contempt hearing.<\/p>\n

The State\u2019s motion said Kite\u2019s words and conduct created the appearance that matters involving Kirsten Bridegan had been prejudged. <\/p>\n

Prosecutors pointed to the rapid sequence of events, the interruption of Fernandez\u2019s trial and the limited time Bridegan was given to prepare for the proposed contempt hearing.<\/p>\n

The State said it was not seeking Kite\u2019s removal simply because she had ruled against Bridegan. Instead, prosecutors argued that the combined circumstances created a reasonable fear that future proceedings involving Kirsten Bridegan would not be fair and impartial.<\/p>\n

Kite denied both motions Thursday. Her order on Bridegan\u2019s motion said the judge would continue to honor the stay imposed by the Fifth District. No further proceedings will take place until the appellate court issues another order.<\/p>\n

The stay protects Bridegan from having to turn over her cellphone while the appeals court considers her petition. The appellate court previously extended the stay through the final disposition of that petition.<\/p>\n

Kite\u2019s rulings do not resolve whether Kirsten Bridegan must ultimately surrender her phone or whether she could face contempt proceedings.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Judge London Kite refused Thursday to step aside from the Shanna Gardner murder case after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1039,116,118,117,30372,34773,30373,30374],"class_list":["post-396393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-duval-county","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jared-bridegan","tag-kirsten-bridegan","tag-mario-fernandez","tag-shanna-gardner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396393","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=396393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}