JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville Beach woman who is charged with orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot to kill her ex-husband hired a new high-profile defense attorney, according to a new court filing.
Shanna Gardner, 36, and her current husband, 34-year-old Mario Fernandez, who was arrested in March, are facing charges of first-degree murder, solicitation to commit first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and child abuse. Gardner was arrested in August.
Prosecutors said Gardner played a “key and central role” in the conspiracy to kill Jared Bridegan who was a father of 4 who had just dropped off his older two children, which he shared with Gardner, at her house.
He stopped to remove a tire from the road near The Sanctuary neighborhood when police said he was ambushed and shot at close range in February 2022. His two-and-a-half-year-old daughter was in the back seat of his SUV at the time of his murder. She wasn’t hurt.
Gardner is now represented by Jose Baez, who is nationally known for representing Casey Anthony, who was acquitted in the murder of her daughter Caylee Anthony more than a decade ago. Baez also represented former UF and New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez.
Baez will replace Gardner’s former defense attorney Hank Coxe.
Gene Nichols, an attorney unaffiliated with Gardner’s case, said hiring Baez is strategic.
“The hiring of a national defense lawyer is going to focus everything on her,” Nichols said. “Her defense is now going to be in the public eye, I think, more than ever. Her lawyer who has obviously been involved in several high profile cases that have been covered across the county, knows how to try the case in the media and at the same time in the courtroom.”
Baez filed a written not-guilty plea to her indictment and has requested a waiver of appearance at Friday’s arraignment.
READ: News4JAX coverage of the Jared Bridegan case | JSO releases Duval County mugshot for Shanna Gardner, accused in murder-for-hire plot to kill ex-husband
Fernandez, who police say paid triggerman Henry Tenon with checks, pleaded not guilty to the charges against him when he was arraigned in July.
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.
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.
Gardner was extradited from Washington State where she was arrested to Jacksonville in October. The children she shared with Bridegan are believed to be with her parents, a wealthy couple who run the online craft business called Stampin’ Up.
Bridegan’s loved ones declined to comment on the ongoing case after Gardner’s extradition was announced.