Jurors in Florida have delivered a conviction in the 2022 roadside killing of Microsoft manager and father of four Jared Bridegan. A Duval County jury on Wednesday found 38-year-old Mario Fernandez Saldana guilty of first-degree murder and solicitation, concluding he helped arrange the ambush that left Bridegan dead on a Jacksonville Beach street while his 2-year-old daughter sat in the car. The 33-year-old was fatally shot after he exited his car to move a tire that was in the road; he had been returning home from dropping off his twins at his ex-wife's home.
Prosecutors said Fernandez Saldana, then married to Bridegan's ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, recruited former tenant Henry Tenon, paid him at least $10,000, and helped secure the gun used. ABC News quotes Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler as saying that in a "stroke of luck" and thanks to "good detective work," investigators found a tire at Fernandez Saldana's rental property where Tenon had lived that matched the one at the crime scene; Tenon's DNA was found on the latter tire.
The defense argued he had no motive and no direct forensic ties to the scene. Stifler argued that was by design: "If you outsource your murder, you are doing it so that your DNA and your footprints and your fingerprints are nowhere near the crime." Tenon and Gardner, who both face separate trials, have pleaded not guilty. Stifler said the murder came after "years of animosity" and a "high-conflict" custody dispute between Bridegan and Gardner. First Coast News reports Fernandez Saldana will be sentenced Oct. 5 and is set to be handed life.
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