JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A woman accused of orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot to kill her ex-husband was extradited from Washington state to Duval County late last week and then waived her first appearance on Saturday afternoon.
Shanna Gardner’s case was passed to Nov. 3, which will be the first time she appears in court in Duval County.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office on Monday released Gardner’s Duval County mugshot, which was taken when she was booked into the jail late Friday night on charges of first-degree murder, solicitation to commit first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and child abuse.
Her husband, 34-year-old Mario Fernandez, who was arrested in March, is facing the same charges in the death of Gardner’s ex-husband, 33-year-old Jared Bridegan. Prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty for both Gardner and Fernandez if they are convicted.
Fernandez, who police say paid triggerman Henry Tenon with checks, pleaded not guilty to the charges against him when he was arraigned in July.
READ: News4JAX coverage of the Jared Bridegan case
Tenon confessed to being the gunman and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for fatally shooting Bridegan. He has agreed to testify against the couple.
“Henry Tenon is either the entire cake or is the icing. Presumably, he’s just the icing on the cake. Presumably, the State Attorney’s Office has more evidence other than Henry Tenon,” Nichols said. “If all they have is Henry Tenon, we are going to see a battle royale with the lawyer from the state and defense as to what evidence is actually out there other than Henry Tenon.”
Returning Gardner, 36, to Jacksonville was a key step in the case, which has essentially been on hold awaiting her extradition.
“The judge wants both co-defendants together. In this case, husband and wife, the judge wants them to be tracking at the same time which is why his case has been in limbo for a while now,” said attorney Gene Nichols, who is not affiliated with the case.
After fighting extradition since her arrest in August, Gardner’s public defender announced Thursday he would not contest an extradition warrant from the governor of Washington.
Gardner moved to her parents’ property in West Richland, Washington, with the two children she shared with Bridegan months after the murder, which received national attention in 2022.
Prosecutors say Gardner played a “key and central role” in the conspiracy to kill Bridegan, who was shot several times at close range on a dark, wooded stretch of road around 8 p.m. Feb. 16, 2022. He had gotten out of his SUV to move a tire blocking the road near the Sanctuary neighborhood in south Jacksonville Beach.
Bridegan’s then-2-year-old-year-old daughter was in the backseat of his SUV when he was shot. The toddler was not injured, but her presence prompted felony child abuse charges against the suspects.
Fernandez’s indictment said he plotted the murder within the four months leading to Bridegan’s death, but Gardner’s indictment said she may have been scheming to kill Bridegan as early as May 2015, a few months before their divorce was finalized.
Investigators say phone records revealed more than 70 calls between Fernandez and Tenon before and after Bridegan’s murder.
“Henry Tenon did not act alone. Mario Fernandez did not plan alone. And Shanna Gardner’s indictment acknowledges her central and key role in the cold, calculated and premeditated murder of Jared Bridegan,” State Attorney Melissa Nelson said when she announced Gardner’s arrest.
Bridegan’s loved ones declined to comment on the ongoing case after Gardner’s extradition was announced.