JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Mario Fernandez is now facing two charges of lewd & lascivious molestation that were filed this week after his conviction in the murder of Jared Bridegan. One was for a victim younger than 12.<\/p>\n
According to an arrest affidavit, a female victim told investigators that Fernandez began molesting her in April 2020 when she was about 8 years old and that the abuse \u201cwent on for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n
NOTE: News4JAX does not identify child victims or victims of sex crimes.<\/p>\n
The girl described the abuse as happening in the bedroom of her Jacksonville home.<\/p>\n
According to the arrest affidavit, the second molestation charge involves a different child victim. News4JAX is still waiting on that report to be made public.<\/p>\n
Fernandez was ordered to return to court on Sept. 17 for his arraignment on both felony charges.<\/p>\n
The arrest and booking reports reference a date of March 22, 2023, which would have been just under a week after Fernandez was first arrested in the Jared Bridegan homicide.<\/p>\n
Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler said in court Thursday during a pre-trial hearing for Fernandez\u2019s wife, Shanna Gardner, that new charges had been filed against Fernandez after \u201cnewly discovered evidence\u201d came to light this week.<\/p>\n
She said the Special Victims Unit is overseeing the new investigation into Fernandez, who made his first appearance before a judge Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Fernandez, 38, was already in jail, pending his sentencing in the Jared Bridegan murder, when he was served with the arrest warrant for the new charges.<\/p>\n
Fernandez joined the Army after high school, and eventually became a drill sergeant. But in January of 2018, shortly before he met and married Gardner, he faced an allegation of sexual assault from a recruit under his charge. The charges were dropped, but Fernandez was given a less-than-honorable discharge.<\/p>\n
Fernandez was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder and solicitation to commit a capital felony in Bridegan\u2019s death. He faces an automatic sentence of life in prison. <\/p>\n
Gardner, Bridegan\u2019s ex-wife, was set to begin trial on murder charges in early September, with jury selection slated for Monday.<\/p>\n
The new charges against Fernandez and other considerations have delayed Gardner\u2019s trial, which will now happen in May 2027.<\/p>\n
Bridegan\u2019s murder<\/p>\n
Fernandez was convicted in what prosecutors called a murder-for-hire<\/a> scheme following years of stormy child custody battles between Bridegan and his wealthy ex-wife<\/a>, who is now married to Fernandez.<\/p>\n The Microsoft design manager and father of four was gunned down in February 2022 after he got out of his SUV to remove a tire from a road in Jacksonville Beach. <\/p>\n He had just left the twins he shared with Gardner at her home following a regularly scheduled \u201cdate night\u201d dinner.<\/p>\n The attack stumped police for months as they struggled to understand why someone with no apparent enemies would be killed while his daughter sat nearby in her car seat.<\/p>\n Prosecutors argued Bridegan was killed because of ongoing strife with Gardner, his former wife, over the parenting of their twins.<\/p>\n \u201cThey wanted a majority of the decision making. They wanted more custody, even 60-40,\u201d Stifler said during closing arguments Tuesday. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if they were completely right about the situation or completely wrong. What matters is how they fixed it. They fixed it by executing a man when they had other alternatives available to them. That\u2019s why we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n Prosecutors said Fernandez hired Henry Tenon, a tenant at one of his rental properties, to carry out the fatal ambush. Tenon had no personal connection to Bridegan, whom he had never met.<\/p>\n The prosecutor described him as \u201cbasically homeless, squatting on people\u2019s couches with overdrawn bank accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n Jurors saw three checks totaling $10,000 written to Tenon after the homicide, marked as payments by Fernandez for handyman work and a business idea \u2014 \u201cgood luck!!\u201d<\/p>\n Tenon\u2019s DNA was identified on the rim of the tire that was intentionally placed in the road, police said.<\/p>\n Tenon initially pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against Fernandez and Gardner but backed out and was indicted on first-degree murder and other charges.<\/p>\n The state will now seek to join the Tenon and Gardner cases and try them together in May 2027.<\/p>\n Gardner is the daughter of the co-founder of Stampin\u2019 Up!, an arts-and-crafts company based in Utah.<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Mario Fernandez is now facing two charges of lewd & lascivious molestation that were filed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,241942,241943,241945,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-827905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-henry-tenon","tag-jared-bridegan","tag-mario-fernandez","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}