Jacksonville, Aug 18:
A man charged with arranging the fatal ambush of a Microsoft design manager is headed to trial Monday in Florida, more than four years after the victim was repeatedly shot outside his vehicle while his 2-year-old child was strapped in a car seat. Investigators say a tire was placed in the road in a plot to distract and kill Jared Bridegan, 33, in Jacksonville Beach in 2022.
They allege it was a murder-for-hire scheme involving his ex-wife and her current husband. The husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, 38, is charged with first-degree murder in Duval County court. Bridegan’s former wife, Shanna Gardner, 39, is also charged with murder, though her trial won’t start until September.
Bridegan and Gardner were granted a divorce in 2015. But it was followed by years of acrimony over the parenting of their two children. Police found that Gardner “hated Mr. Bridegan, hated having to share custody of the children with him and wanted him dead,” Judge London Kite wrote, summarising evidence after a bond hearing in 2024.