Mario Enrique Fernandez Saldana, right, helped murder his wife's former husband Jared Bridegan, left, authorities said. (Images: City of Jacksonville Beach Police Department)
Prosecutors said they plan to seek the death penalty against a man charged with ambushing and murdering Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan, 33.
The web is tangled between the defendant, Mario Enrique Fernandez Saldana, 35, and the victim because he is the new yet estranged husband of Bridegan's ex-wife Shanna Gardner-Fernandez.
The second defendant in this killing, Henry Tenon, 61, who had been a tenant on property belonging to Fernandez Saldana, pleaded guilty as the gunman.
Jared's widow, Kirsten Bridegan, released a statement through prosecutors welcoming their decision to seek the death penalty.
"The announcement today is another significant step toward justice," she said. "The knowledge that the State is pursuing the death penalty for Mario Fernandez Saldana is welcome news because it signifies determination and the relentless pursuit of justice for Jared, our family, and the community. We aren't backing down to those involved in the heinous, cold-blooded murder of my husband in front of our daughter."
Jared Bridegan was driving after taking three of his children for a routine weekly dinner on Feb. 16, 2022. He had dropped off the twins he shared with Gardner-Fernandez, leaving them at their mother's residence. He was returning home with his and Kirsten's 2-year-old daughter in the backseat of his SUV.
He would never make it. Police in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, said he encountered a tire in a dark area of Sanctuary Boulevard. Investigators believe someone put it there on purpose to make him stop. Bridegan opened his SUV door, presumably to move the tire.
"It was then that he was gunned down in cold blood," Jacksonville Beach Police Chief Gene Paul Smith said.
Charges against Fernandez Salanda and Tenon include child abuse because the shooting endangered Bridegan's daughter.
"Bullets struck the interior of the vehicle, in close proximity to where the child was strapped into her car, an act that reasonably could have been expected to cause physical or mental injury to her," an affidavit stated. "Witnesses advised that the child was crying when they arrived on scene."
In seeking the death penalty, prosecutors said the murder was committed for pecuniary gain. It was done in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification.
They are also using the child abuse charge as an aggravator if that count ends in a conviction because it is a felony involving the use of violence against Bridegan's daughter.
Kristen Bridegan said on Wednesday that she took comfort knowing that Jared's twins are no longer living with Fernandez Salanda, adding, "I hope all evil surrounding them and our family will be removed in due time."
Fourth Circuit State Attorney Melissa Nelson has to declined to say if there will be any further arrests in the case.
Before the criminal cases against her new husband and Tenon, Gardner-Fernandez denied wrongdoing.
"It is becoming necessary to respond," she told The Florida Times-Union in a June 30 report. "I didn't want it to make a spectacle. I want people to know where I am coming from."
She declined to discuss her divorce with Bridegan, in which she had accused him of "disturbing and abusive behavior."
He claimed she locked him out of the master bedroom and installed surveillance devices in his car and the children's bedroom.
"I don't see any good in airing our dirty laundry," Gardner-Fernandez reportedly said.
Partially redacted documents in the criminal cases state that Fernandez Saldana and Gardner-Fernandez met at her CrossFit gym in 2018. Fernandez Saldana was a maintenance man there. Authorities redacted most of the following text, however.
Investigators left in that Gardner-Fernandez shared custody of her children with Jared Bridegan. They also mentioned a financial link between Tenon and Fernandez Saldana.
"Affiant received Tenon's financial records from PNC Bank on October 14, 2022," the affidavit stated. "Upon conducting the initial review, three handwritten checks were discovered from Fernandez Saldana."
Tenon and Fernandez Saldana had "35 phone contacts" in February 2022, 30 in March 2022, and "5-9" in May and June 2022, an affidavit said.
"Jared is loved and missed more than words can express, and we deeply feel his loss," Kristen wrote on Wednesday. "While we know he is gone, we take comfort in knowing the prosecution team and law enforcement remain unrelenting in their efforts and are committed to holding everyone involved in Jared's murder accountable. They continue to have our support and gratitude."