The trial of Mario Fernandez opened on Monday at the Duval County Circuit Courthouse in Jacksonville, Florida, with prosecutors accusing him of first-degree murder and solicitation in a murder-for-hire plot that killed Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan.
Bridegan, 33, was shot dead on February 16, 2022, after stepping out of his car in Jacksonville Beach to move a tire left in the road as a trap, while his two-year-old daughter, Bexley, sat strapped in her car seat inches away.
Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler faced the jury during opening statements and described the site of the shooting in stark terms. "The Sanctuary neighborhood is exactly what it sounds like," Stifler said. "A small residential enclave of nice homes with golf carts in the driveway. On February 16, 2022, it was anything but that for Jared Bridegan. Instead, it was a site of execution."
Two bullets struck Bridegan and two struck his vehicle, leaving him face down in a pool of blood on the asphalt. Stifler told the courtroom that Bridegan was "a man executed in front of his child by a ghost in the darkness."
In the moments following the gunshots, the car infotainment system repeatedly lit up with calls from his wife, Kirsten, who was waiting at home in Nocatee, Florida, with their seven-month-old child, London. Kirsten called repeatedly with growing unease after an earlier conversation that ended abruptly.
Instead, the horror of the scene was captured in four words spoken by his toddler daughter: "I saw a boom."
Execution trap and courtroom testimony
Kirsten Bridegan, 34, sat in the front row of the gallery on Monday, wearing a black dress with her long hair falling in waves, and dabbed tears with a white handkerchief as recorded audio of her daughter was played in court. The child's testimony was captured in a short video recorded by Jonelle Cruz, a Good Samaritan who arrived at the scene with her partner, Shawn Borja.
Cruz and Borja found Bridegan lying fatally wounded in the road and took Bexley into their vehicle, wrapping her in a blanket. Cruz, testifying after lunch, said she recorded the video "Just for myself. She was just the cutest, bravest, strongest little girl I've ever seen in my life."
Cruz and Borja both testified that the toddler was "panting and shaking" in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. "She kept telling us that her daddy was hurt on the ground and asking if the police were going to help her daddy," Cruz recalled.
Fernandez, 38, sat smartly dressed in a light grey suit and red tie with his hair cut short, watching the proceedings impassively. When Kirsten took the witness stand shortly after lunch and was asked to identify Fernandez, he gave no reaction as she pointed at him where he sat with his defense attorneys.
Kirsten appeared stricken when Stifler opened her questioning by asking, "Are you the widow of Jared Bridegan?" She struggled to find her voice before responding, "I am." Later, when shown a photograph of Bridegan smiling on their wedding day, she broke down in tears as she answered, "Yes," to the question, "Is this your husband?" She left the courtroom before the Medical Examiner testified regarding the details of her husband's injuries.
Custody dispute and the alleged murder plot
On the night he was killed, Bridegan was driving home after dropping off his nine-year-old twins, Liam and Abby, at the Jacksonville Beach home shared by his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, and Fernandez. Under a week-on, week-off custody agreement, the parent who did not have the twins on a given week was permitted a Wednesday evening "date night" with them.
Bridegan was killed less than two miles from the house shared by Gardner and Fernandez. Kirsten testified that she had spoken with him on the phone minutes before the shooting, describing the call as "strange." After she said, "I love you see you soon," Bridegan gave no response and "was just quiet," leaving her with an unsettling feeling that something was wrong.
Prosecutors allege that Gardner, 39, served as the mastermind behind the murder plot, with Fernandez acting as the conduit to Henry Tenon, 64, the man accused of pulling the trigger. The defense contends that Tenon acted alone and destroyed the lives of Bridegan, his wife, and Fernandez. Tenon is scheduled to stand trial in March 2027.
Stifler argued to the jury that Fernandez provides the sole connecting link between Bridegan and Tenon. Tenon had previously rented a property owned by Fernandez. Following his arrest in January 2023, Tenon pleaded guilty three months later in April 2023 and agreed to cooperate with law enforcement in exchange for a sentence of 15 years to life. Investigators found three check stubs written by Fernandez totaling $10,000 inside Tenon's truck. However, Tenon withdrew from his plea deal earlier this year.
Over a year-long investigation involving advanced technology and extensive police work, Stifler said every lead pointed back to Fernandez and Gardner. Prosecutors asserted that Fernandez and Gardner were the only individuals with a motive to kill Bridegan and the only ones who stood to gain financially and in their living circumstances.
Financial trust and move to Washington State
Bridegan and Gardner married in 2010 while both were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, relocating from Utah to Jacksonville Beach. The marriage was troubled, as Bridegan remained a devout Mormon while Gardner harbored doubts, left the church, and opposed raising her children in the faith. In the weeks prior to the murder, Kirsten testified that she and Bridegan were preparing his daughter from his first marriage for baptism in the Mormon church.
Bridegan and Gardner divorced in February 2015. Stifler noted that although years passed, "the acrimony never did. Despite the fact that they both remarried." Bridegan met Kirsten on a dating app and married her in October 2017, while Gardner married Fernandez in 2018.
Prosecution statements characterized Gardner's second marriage as a "marriage of convenience." Gardner, who comes from an extremely wealthy family, met Fernandez while he worked as a maintenance man at a local gym where she attended CrossFit classes. Stifler stated that Fernandez "married her to help with the kids and to help with the 'Jared situation.'"
Court records indicate that Bridegan and Gardner engaged in near-constant custody litigation until months before the shooting, with Gardner seeking full custody rather than the shared 50/50 arrangement. Following the killing, Fernandez told police that the children were "better off without him."
Prosecutors also detailed financial arrangements involving an irrevocable trust containing millions of dollars set up by Gardner's parents, Shelli and Sterling Gardner, with Fernandez serving as trustee. A specific clause stipulated that Gardner could only take control of the trust as trustee once she had no remaining legal entanglements with Bridegan.
Although Fernandez and Gardner had planned to separate prior to the murder, they remain married following their arrests for first-degree murder and solicitation to commit a capital felony, a status that prevents them from being compelled to testify against each other. One week after the shooting, Fernandez transferred $50,000 from the irrevocable trust into his personal checking account. The couple lived together for several months before separating, selling their home bought by Gardner's parents, and splitting the proceeds.
Six months after the murder, Gardner moved with the twins to Washington State into a home purchased by her parents. Defense attorneys argued that the move fulfilled a long-held desire by Gardner to live across the country, whereas prosecutors alleged that Bridegan was the final obstacle preventing that relocation. The trial in Duval County Circuit Court is expected to last two weeks.
