JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Newly released documents in the case of the murder-for-hire plot to kill Jared Bridegan outline everything from comments made during a search of his ex-wife Shanna Gardner’s parents’ property in Washington to the defendants’ movements before and after the murder.
Bridegan was shot and killed in 2022 after he dropped off the twins he shared with his ex-wife at her home in Jacksonville Beach. He had stopped to remove a tire from the road and was ambushed in the street.
Gardner and her estranged husband, Mario Fernandez, are under indictment for first-degree murder in Bridegan’s death and both face the possibility of the death penalty.
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Gardner and Fernandez are accused of hiring Fernandez’s former tenant, Henry Tenon, to kill Bridegan. Tenon has pleaded guilty to being the triggerman.
According to a 250-page document from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, in the search of Gardner’s parents’ Washington home, it appears one of her children asked the special agent, “What are they looking for?”
“We’re looking for phones,” the document said the agent replied.
Though the person’s name was redacted in the document, they responded, “Like burner phones?”
The document then said the person told the special agent “that his mom keeps all her ‘important’ electronics in her ‘bedroom closet’” and then whispered “up above,” pointing toward the ceiling.
The document said investigators took cellphones, an Apple watch, sim cards and several laptops.
The documents also discussed Fernandez, stating his phone pinged at the rental property where Tenon was staying. According to the documents, his phone pinged for 15 minutes in the morning and an hour in the evening the day before Bridegan was killed.
A tire matching the one Bridegan was trying to remove from the road when he was ambushed was also found on the property.
Tenon’s truck was caught on video just after the shooting. The documents revealed that a man named Jimmy Jones Jr. had the truck in his backyard for three to four months after Tenon had it towed there.
The documents said Jones tried calling Tenon, but the calls went to voicemail. Jones then asked law enforcement if the truck was involved in something criminal. The detectives replied they thought so but did not believe Jones was involved, the documents said.
Gardner and Fernandez are expected back in court later in September.
