JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – The State Attorney’s Office released more evidence Wednesday in the 2022 Jared Bridegan murder-for-hire case, including an audio recording of a woman who gave prosecutors greater insight into the relationship between Shanna Gardner and Mario Fernandez, who are accused of plotting to kill Bridegan.
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The newly released discovery material includes body camera footage, 911 calls, police interviews, and sworn statements made to the SAO related to Bridegan’s murder investigation.
Bridegan, a 33-year-old father of four and Gardner’s ex-husband, was ambushed and killed in Jacksonville Beach in February 2022 in what’s been described by investigators as a murder-for-hire plot. Bridegan was killed while his toddler daughter was still strapped into her car seat in the back of his SUV.
‘I’ve killed people before’
Among the materials released on Wednesday is an audio recording of a statement made in June 2022, four months after Bridegan’s murder, by a woman who claimed to be Gardner’s former coworker and friend.
She told investigators she decided to come forward because she had information that could help in Bridegan’s death investigation.
In her statement, the woman told the SAO that she saw Gardner’s and Fernandez’s relationship unfold from the start — a relationship that progressed from dating to engagement in four weeks.
She also described a particular conversation she had with Gardner when they worked together at a preschool.
In that conversation, the woman recalled Gardner complaining about her custody battle with Bridegan. According to the woman, Gardner then told her that Fernandez had a military background and could get people to break into Bridegan’s house in the middle of the night to “take care of him and no one would ever know.”
“She kind of laughed it off, laughed about it. And, yeah, casual,” the woman recalled.
The woman also told investigators she had heard Fernandez make some statements about having killed people in the past.
She recalled having dinner with Gardner and Fernandez sometime before the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the woman, she got into an argument with Fernandez after he challenged her faith, and at some point in the argument, he said something that made her uncomfortable.
“He said, ‘I’m in the military,’ you know, ‘I’ve killed people before,’” the woman told investigators.
The woman also stated that Gardner had disclosed to her that there may have been some infidelity in her marriage with Fernandez.
Despite the infidelity suspicions, Gardner told her she would stay married to Fernandez because it would be better for her custody battle with Bridegan. She also said she knew she would get more money from her family if she stayed married to him.
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In April 2022, two months after Bridegan’s murder, the woman said she received a call from Gardner that seemed out of the blue because they had not seen each other or spoken in a while.
In that call, she said, Gardner was complaining about Kirsten Bridegan, Jared Bridegan’s wife, and how she was talking to the media and releasing pictures without her consent.
“‘People know where my address is, because of Kirsten, people know where my house is, we’re not safe, and I’ll just pick up, move, sell everything and start over,’” the woman recalled Gardner telling her.
To finish her statement, the woman told investigators Gardner was pushing for them to hang out, despite not having talked for a while.
“She just, you know, wanted to make sure she’s like, I know that people that know me and love me are on my side,” she said Gardner told her.
Fernandez gets pulled over
The State Attorney’s Office also released body camera footage of a traffic stop involving Fernandez in February 2023.
During that traffic stop, police told Fernandez he had been pulled over due to a tag cover that needed to come off.
Fernandez is then seen getting into a JSO patrol vehicle after he was told that an officer would talk to him momentarily.
An officer then reads Fernandez an affidavit notifying him that they are seizing his two cellphones and other electronic devices in connection with Bridegan’s murder.
Fernandez is heard asking the officer if he could text his lawyer, but is told he can call his lawyer from someone else’s phone later.
Fernandez was later released, but six months later, he was arrested in Orange County on first-degree murder, conspiracy, and child abuse charges in connection with Bridegan’s death.
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Fernandez, then 34, is accused of hiring Henry Tenon, then 62, to fatally shoot Bridegan.
Tenon previously admitted to being the gunman in Bridegan’s murder and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He had also agreed to testify against Gardner and Fernandez. But in January, Tenon changed his tune, stating that his testimony was false and requesting a new attorney.
The News4JAX I-TEAM uncovered records confirming that Tenon rented a house owned by Fernandez in Northwest Jacksonville, about 25 miles from the scene of the Jacksonville Beach shooting.
According to the arrest warrant for Fernandez, bank records showed three handwritten checks that Fernandez wrote to Tenon. The amount of the checks was redacted from the document.
The trial for Gardner and Fernandez was set to begin in October. However, it was pushed back to Aug. 3, 2026.
Gardner and Fernandez are set to appear in court on Sept. 19 for a pretrial hearing.