The Roadside Ambush: Inside Florida’s Jared Bridegan Murder-for-Hire Case

JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — What initially appeared to be a father stopping to remove a tire from a dark Florida roadway has become one of the state’s most closely watched murder cases—a sprawling alleged murder-for-hire conspiracy involving a bitter divorce, a custody battle and three people accused in the killing.

On the evening of Feb. 16, 2022, Jared Bridegan, a 33-year-old Microsoft executive and father of four, had just dropped off the 9-year-old twins he shared with his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, at her Jacksonville Beach home. His 2-year-old daughter, Bexley, remained strapped into a car seat as Bridegan drove toward his home in St. Augustine.

Then he encountered a tire sitting in the roadway.

Bridegan stopped his Volkswagen Atlas, got out and attempted to move it. Investigators say the tire was no accident—it had allegedly been deliberately positioned to lure him from his vehicle.

Bridegan was shot multiple times at close range. His toddler daughter remained inside the SUV, just feet away.

The killing initially left investigators with few obvious answers. But prosecutors now contend it was the culmination of a carefully planned conspiracy.

Authorities ultimately arrested Henry Tenon, Mario Fernandez Saldana, and Gardner. Prosecutors allege Gardner and Fernandez—Gardner's second husband—were involved in arranging Bridegan's killing and that Tenon was recruited to carry it out. Court records charge Gardner and Fernandez with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation to commit a capital felony and child abuse. Both have pleaded not guilty.

The alleged motive centers largely on the increasingly hostile relationship between Bridegan and Gardner following their divorce.

The former couple had been locked in years of litigation involving custody of their twins and other disputes. Prosecutors have argued that the deteriorating relationship provides important context for the alleged conspiracy, although Gardner's attorneys dispute the state's characterization of events and maintain her innocence.

A major breakthrough came with Tenon, who rented property connected to Fernandez. Investigators found financial and communications links between the men, including numerous telephone calls around the period of Bridegan's killing. Tenon initially pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, admitting he was the gunman.

But the case took an extraordinary turn in 2026.

Tenon moved to withdraw his guilty plea and abandoned his agreement to testify against Gardner and Fernandez. His reversal complicated a prosecution that had expected to use the alleged gunman's testimony to help establish the murder-for-hire conspiracy. Tenon is now headed toward his own trial.

Meanwhile, Fernandez is about to become the first defendant to face a jury. Jury selection in his trial is scheduled to begin Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, bringing a case that has spent more than four years moving through Florida's criminal justice system into a critical new phase.

Pretrial battles have continued almost until jury selection, with attorneys fighting over what evidence jurors will be permitted to hear. Gardner is expected to face a separate trial.

For prosecutors, the challenge will be proving that Bridegan's death was not simply a roadside shooting but a deliberately constructed execution involving people within his extended family circle.

For the defense, the approaching trials offer the first opportunity to challenge that narrative before jurors.

More than four years after Jared Bridegan stepped from his SUV to move a tire from the road, the central question is finally approaching a courtroom test: Who planned the ambush that left a father dead with his 2-year-old daughter only feet away?