Law&Crime Sidebar - 9 Shocking New Details in Microsoft Executive Hitman Murder Case

Episode Date: May 17, 2024

Shanna Gardner and her estranged husband Mario Fernandez Saldana are accused of hiring a hitman to kill Gardner’s ex-husband, Jared Bridegan, a design supervisor with Microsoft. During Gardner’s bond hearing this week, the judge heard testimony from the lead detective on the case, who laid out the evidence police have gathered so far. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber analyzes the complex investigation with Thomas Holt, the Director of the Michigan State University School of Criminal Justice.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. We had several people come forward who shared stories that they had heard over the years of Ms. Gardner stating that she hated Jared and could not stand the fact that she had to share custody with him and that she wanted him dead. The woman accused of hiring a hitman to kill her ex-husband, a Microsoft executive, wants to be let out on bail until her murder trial. Now it's up to the judge to make a ruling and there is a lot of evidence that was presented in court. Thomas Holt, professor at the Michigan State

University School of Criminal Justice and expert in cybercrime is here to talk about this complex case. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Okay, I want to tell you a story right now. It concerns a woman named Shanna Gardner and her ex-husband Jared Bridigan. This is a senior design manager with Microsoft lived in the Jacksonville Beach, Florida area. They shared twins together before divorcing in 2015. Since that time, Gardner had been married to a man named Mario Fernandez Saldana and Bridegan had married a woman named Kristen. So Gardner and Fernandez-Sildana are now accused of plotting Bridegan's murder, hiring a hitman and actually going through with it. So in February of 2022, 33-year-old Jared Bridegan had just dropped off the twins at their mother's house in Jacksonville Beach.

He was on his way back to his own house with his two-year-old from his second marriage in the back seat. I want you to remember that. And according to police, it appears that someone left a tire in the middle of the road. And when Bridegan got out to move it, he was shot multiple times at close range. His daughter was still strapped into her car seat, remained that way until police arrived. She is fine. She was uninjured. She was unharmed.

But she was there. And nearly a year after the shooting, police announced a major development. They made their first arrest in January of 2023. A man named Henry Tenon admitted to police that he was the one who shot Jared Bridegan and agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder with a weapon. Okay, it's part of that plea agreement. Tenon has to testify truthfully about his involvement in the crime and his interactions. But who did he have interactions with?

Did he just do this alone? Not exactly. Because prosecutors are alleging that he had interactions with the second person to be arrested in this case, Mario Fernandez Saldana. So investigators found out that Fernanda Saldana was the only connection between Bridegan and Tenant. Tenin was actually a tenant at a property of Fernandez. And Fernandez-Soldana, remember at the time of the murder, was married to Shanna Gardner, the ex of Jared Bridigan. So apparently Gardner and Bridegan were in the middle of a bitter custody dispute over their twins when Bridegan was killed.

What did he advise you about how it was that he came to be involved in Jared Tender? Mr. Ten was a tenant at one of their rental properties, and he had been approached by Mr. Fernandez a number of times asking him if he would participate in his homicide. Mr. Tenant stated that he initially denied Mr. Fernandez's request. However, once Mr. Fernandez had agreed that they would, Bing Shea and Mario would invest $150,000. into a pallet business, he agreed to participate. Okay, and I want to go back and ask some follow-up questions about that. When you say that Henry Tennant said Mario Fernes requested him to participate in a homicide, what specifically was that conversation, according to Mr. Tenney?

He stated that in exchange for the money that Mr. Fernandez would provide a firearm, and then they would contrive a plan. Initially, the plan was to kidnap. Mr. Bridegine and then take him to an other location and murder him. And did Mr. Tenant advise as to what, if anything, Mario Fernandez said about why he wanted to murder, Jared Faragan? They had initially planned or were planning this in late 2021. And then after returning from a Hawaii trip in February, Mr. Fernandez approached Mr. Tenon and stated that that this needed to happen this week.

So he didn't get it done, that his marriage was going to end. Did Henry Tenon know Jerry Bride again? No, he did not. Had he ever seen him before the night of the homicide on February 16th, 2022? No, in fact, there were two instances where Mr. Fernandez took Mr. Tenon in an attempt to show him Mr. Bright again. and both of those were failed attempts. Other than the relationship of Mr. Tenon,

being a tenant of Mario Fernandez-Ladonna and Shannon Gardner's rental company, were you able to find in your investigation any other link or connection between Henry Tenon and Jared Bridgen? None. In your conversations with Henry Tenon, was Mr. Tenon able to, even before this night,

describe what Jared Barthaghan looked like? Not at all. What type of car he drove? Did he know on the night that he murdered, Jarediagant, that Bibi would be in the vehicle with him? He did not know that. Fernandez-Saldano was arrested in March of 2023. He was charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, solicitation

to commit a capital felony and child abuse because Breitigan's daughter was in the car when her father was shot. So that's how you get that extra charge there. She made mention of hearing a loud sound, boom, boom, saying that she had to take her shoes off to cover her ears, and she made mention that her daddy was sick and was on the ground and needed a doctor. Shana Gardner, meanwhile, was arrested on the other side of the country out in Washington State. She was hit with the same charges. She and Fernandez Saldana being tried together, but with separate attorneys, both face the death penalty, if convicted.

However, we have recently learned that Jose Baez famed criminal defense lawyer who has represented Casey Anthony, he is representing Ms. Gardner. Now, on Wednesday, the judge had a hearing to determine whether Gardner could be released on bond pending trial. And during that hearing, the prosecution argued that even if Gardner didn't physically actually shoot her ex-husband, his blood is still on her hands. She is guilty, and they laid out some of the evidence that led to Gardner's arrest. Now, before we get into anything that happened in that hearing, I want to bring in Thomas Holt, professor at the Michigan State University School of Criminal Justice, expert in cybercrime, here to talk about this complex case. Thomas, good to see you.

I went to University of Michigan. I think we can still continue this interview nonetheless, but very happy to have you nonetheless. Yes, thank you for having you. what are your overall thoughts on this because one of the things that shocks me is and i see so many of these cases before where someone is accused or is found guilty of hiring a hitman to actually carry out a murder you would think they want to create less of a trail to back to them and when doing that even though you hire that middleman you leave even a worse trail more evidence tying back to you yeah we're at a point in time where there is evidence everywhere

even if we're very careful, there's going to be text messages, search histories, things that will give some inkling of either a rationale for an action or a loose connection between two people that can establish some kind of culpability in an offense. And that's what we're going to get into. But before we get into that, real quick, what did you make of the crime scene? So I mentioned the way that this was an attempt to lure him, to stop him. two rounds struck that car it's amazing that she that daughter is okay and by the way that daughter so sad to think about she uh apparently told police that she heard boom boom had to cover her ears

with shoes that her daddy was sick i mean it's just unthinkable but that was the crime scene that we're talking about here yeah that's a heartbreaking story to read and not only because of the loss of his life, but what this little girl had to experience. And it's the kind of thing that reminds me of something out of a movie almost in terms of seeing a tire and having to stop. It's a very good lure and one that seems very cinematic. By the way, one thing this story makes clear, and not to make light of this in any way, you need a good lawyer. I think that's pretty clear from this. And you know when that is especially true is if you get injured, if you get hurt. That is such a world-changing event. That can be so traumatic.

How do you even navigate that? Well, that is why I want to take a minute to call out our great partner and sponsor here on Sidebar, Morgan and Morgan. This is a firm you would want your corner because they are specialists in this area. Morgan and Morgan is America's largest injury law firm. And for a reason, they win a lot. They have secured multi-million dollar verdicts in settlements. They secured a $120 million verdict in one of the first personal injury trials post-pandemic. And by the way, in that case,

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No, you only pay them if you win. So if you've been injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan and Morgan. You can start a claim in eight clicks or less without even having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit for the people.com slash LC sidebar or by dialing pound law. That's pound 529 on your phone. Now let me go into some of the evidence. So according to the prosecution, Henry Tennant told police that he agreed to kill Jared Brightigan for $150,000, that the money was to be invested into a business.

business in small amounts, this according to Tenon, probably as a way to make it look like it was legitimate. There were checks that were written to Tenon and his alleged business. They were pulling money from Gardner's trust. The defense countered this by pointing out that the checks were always signed by Fernandez-Seldana. I'm drawing your attention to the screen now. There's a red box. Can you describe for the court what is indicated by that on this checking statement? The statement is indicating a deposit for $2,000 on March 28th, which would be in line with the check that's in the top right hand corner. And this is March 28th, 2022. Correct.

This would be about a month and some time after the murder of Jared Bartigan. That's correct. And then a second red box would describe what this indicates. This is a check that was deposited on. the next day on March 29th for $3,000, also written from first choice home rentals. Okay, and on the next slide we see the final check and final box, can you describe what we're seeing here?

This checks on April 6th for $5,000 written to Hennerton from first quote, first choice fundamentals. And in the subject line it says, Kickstarter, good luck, can you describe from the court based on your conversations with Mr. Tenon, what this check was actually for? Mr. Tennant stated this was the first of many payments that was supposed to be an investment into his pallet company,

which was actually a payment for the concept. Now the prior checks, the $3,000 and $4,000 were marked for landscaping and roofing. What did Mr. Tenon say about those payments? He said that those payments were for legitimate work that he'd have done on the rental property on the Tomic Avenue. So this was the first

and the only payment he actually received from first choice home rentals for the contract killing of Jared Brideon. Correct. So during your investigation at some point, did you start hearing from people that you should be looking at Shanna Gardner and Mario Fernandez-Seldana as suspects? Almost immediately. And how did you get information directing you to look into these individuals? We had several people come forward who shared stories that they had heard over the years. of Ms. Gardner stating that she hated Jared and could not stand the fact that she had to share custody with him and that she wanted him dead.

And you heard this unsolicited from numerous people, not just one person. Correct. When you heard this information, did you investigate into the past history of Shannon Gardner and Jared Barthage? Yes, ma'am. may have gone through a pretty acrimonious divorce. Correct. And he briefly described from the court what that investigation uncovered for you.

They were divorced in 2015, and pretty much consistently between 2015, up until Jared's death, they were in court at least annually. Pretty much every aspect of the child custody was litigated, and fought through mediation it was to the degree that they no longer had any type of verbal communication about their children everything was done either in writing or through an attorney

and from your investigation were they even able to be in the same room together no how did they co-parent through the court when they went to the school do they have separate parent teacher conferences it was indicated that they had separate parent teacher conferences and they would have separate doctor's appointments or only one of them would attend the doctor's appointments. There was virtually nothing they'd make it together as far as that gets with them. We mentioned that Gardner had this trust. She comes from apparently a wealthy family, and prosecutors showed bank statements that present that Gardner's parents were putting money into a trust for Shanna and her kids. Turns out, though, that Fernandez-Saldana was the trustee.

If it was Gardner's personal account or personal income, then it seems her, ex-husband could have potentially have had access to it. So if Bridegan were to suddenly disappear, Gardner would get custody of the twins, have full access to a trust fund. That's the argument from the prosecution. Thomas, does that paper trail makes sense to you? Face, yes, I think that makes sense. It's one that I think will be a little harder from a defense perspective to argue, but the issue is we're dealing with people with some degree of wealth. And so trusts in this kind of management might be more common than what the average person might experience, especially if they're going through a divorce. The fact that as the defense countered, and by the way, I think it was confirmed by a detective, there is not a single check signed by Shana Gardner from that account.

Is that a problem for the prosecution? Yes, it certainly could be. But it doesn't, it's not the end all because he had, they had this shared relationship, she and Fernandez-Sldana, right? So, in other words, in cases that you've seen, you can convict somebody, even if they weren't the one to physically pull the trigger, not if they were the one to even put up the money, but if they were a part of it some other way, right? Yes, exactly. And so this is where other pieces of evidence, any kind of relational tie that can be established will be important. And the prosecutors allege that, and by the way, the way I also understand it is there's no paper trail between Gardner and Tenant. the hitman i don't think they've even met there's no text messages there's no phone calls is that

common in a case like this well with what we know about hitman relationships generally they're usually friend of friend kind of relationships where you may not know the individual but you know someone who knows them and so establishing that kind of connection is sensible and it works with what we know traditionally about hitman cases yeah it's interesting because we covered another big case here, the Dan Markell murder trial, an FSU law professor, it was a hitman case, and the person who just got arrested in connection with this, this mother, she never presumably met the hitman that actually carried it out. So there was a little bit of disconnect as well, but that just came to my mind.

But prosecutors, they have also alleged in this case that Gardner had spoken before about wanting to have her husband killed. This is big evidence for the prosecution. There reports that five years before Bridegan's death, Gardner allegedly spoke about hiring a hitman. Fernandez-Laddon reportedly made statements about being able to, quote, get four guys to take care of Bridegan. No one would ever know. There was a text message allegedly from Gardner where she says, I would love to see him get a lethal injection. Prosecutors introduced Gardner's text messages in 2015 with a close friend where Gardner wished that Bridegan would disappear. She and the friend would also use code words.

They used stupid as a nickname for Jared Bridegan and said casserole or funeral potatoes in reference or seemingly in reference to his death. They also referenced wanting someone who could shut people up and who does permanent disappearing acts, referring to a magician. The defense said these texts are irrelevant, that they happened years before the murder. There is a long cooling off period. The detective also acknowledged that some of the comments. came off as jokes. The text like, I'm going to kill someone. The defense said, have been used in conversations before.

It doesn't mean that she meant for anyone to die because they referenced a text message where she said, or allegedly said, I need a break for my kids, like I'm ready to kill them. You know, I don't see anything in here where Ms. Gardner is asking Ms. Jensen to reach out to sue. I don't know how that can be, what Ms. Jensen did can be used against Ms. Gardner at this point. Again, we're talking about things that all. are six years prior to the killing of Jared Bridegan. I don't believe there's any allegation from the state whatsoever that this led to anything

or even in the state's theory to the death of Mr. Bridegan, it's totally irrelevant, it is so stale and this court should not even consider it for purposes of this bond hearing. It's not relevant. Are that even as a co-conspirator statement? Are they saying that the conspiracy,

went back to 2016 is that is that the state's argument we are on the date range encompasses these text messages and the charged indictment there are further statements leading up to the death of Jared writing in between these individuals they are relevant because they show miss gardener's state of mind intent incitement encouragement as it relates to being a principal of a first-degree murder this is a bond hearing the rules of evidence are loosened this there's no jury before the court the court can give whatever weight to these text messages that deems fit based on the argument of mr carotty but his argument goes to the way

not be immisibility they are admissible because they are simultaneous statements to a conversation she's having with miss jensen to a third party that's then referenced by misgarner miss jensen about what it is they're planning to do or hoping to see done how important are these text messages It's tricky because they're very well-worded, and the length of time between when they were made and the actual death is so long that, yeah, it is hard to say that this is a direct one-to-one for the event itself. The fact that you're talking about wanting someone dead, if they're in the middle of a divorce or they're having a very bad breakup, these are things that anyone might say, and the fact that the language is coded to read as something of a joke or perhaps even an inside joke between. two friends, that makes it difficult. And a jury, upon hearing that, may be inclined to go with either the defense or the prosecution. It's going to be up to the individual there. So if they were more recent, then I think there might be something more compelling. It might make the

evidence harder. But as it is, it's one that could be argued as quite a tenuous kind of relationship. And Jose Baez, again, representing Ms. Gardner said that there are no texts about hiring hitman in 2020 or 2021. The principal instruction in Florida is just that she had a conscious intent of the death Jared Bartigant and that she did some act or said something that was intended to and did incite, cause, incurring, assist or advise other people to carry out this homicide. And again, she had no dealings directly with Henry 10. There are no communications the state of Florida has, or even if we have.

that we could use a trial between her and Maria Fernandez because they've stayed married to this day. What we have is a tremendous circumstantial case against her based on her words and her actions. Circumstances that she incited, because we will never have direct evidence of that unless Mario Fernandez-Ladonna decides to become a stake operator, those being

that this woman is the only person in the world that had this level of resentment, hatred, and motivation, to ambush, eliminate Jared Bright again. That she wanted to have total control and freedom over the decisions in rearing their children, that she spoke at her interview with Jacksonville Beach police about her resentment for how he was during their marriage and some resentment for how she felt that he was acting now.

Now he's turning the corner. Now he's the perfect husband. Now he's the perfect father. and that freedom, that motivation is evident based on where everybody ended up because Henry Tenon, no doubt, pulled the trigger and killed Jared Bartigan. He's confessed to it. He says he did it. He says Mario Fernandez solicited him, paid him, provided the firearm, drove him there,

was on scene when he murdered Jared Bartigan. There is no motivation for Henry Tenon to do this. this crime without being incited, encouraged, or assisted by Shanna Gardner and Mario Fernandez. And there is no motive for Mario Fernandez to do this without the encouragement and solicitation and permission of Shanna Gardner. The most damning evidence we have comes from Shannon Gardner's own statements to her best friend, a woman she trusts with her life, a woman she talks to five or six times a day, a woman she tells the most intimate, mundane details of her life,

a woman that tagged herself, quote, teen Shanna, a woman who was dragged the grand jury, was withholding, minimizing, refusing to tell police about text messages, all because she wanted to protect her best friend. The statements that she did give the state of Florida and law enforcement, likely just the tip of the iceberg of what this woman actually knows.

And she wasn't bullied, she wasn't threatened, she wasn't, there was a show force suggested in defense cross-examination that we put her in a patrol car, put no much of posters in front of her face, and made her tell us what we wanted to hear. What she told us is in black and white in these text messages, she said it at the grand jury under oath, and she said it again. And she's going to say it on that stand at the trial. That days before Jared Brideon was ambushed, targeted, murdered, with no other suspects and no other motivation, that this woman sat across from Mario Fernandez in Hawaii, and told her, if you really don't want me to do,

this you need to tell me now. The evidence that she said yes is so overwhelming because the ultimate result, the consequence speaks to the action. He would not have done this. He would not have gone to Henry Tennant, given him the gun, and done this action, if she hadn't said yes, because in the end she got what she wanted. She and Mario Fernandez stayed married but they went their separate race, she got control of her trust, she got to move to Washington, she has her children, no one's interfering with her now, she's got no even her current husband, ex-husband, writing and family, nobody's interfering with her choices regarding

her children. You heard a lot of evidence of suspicion and a lot about motive. You can read a thousand cases, Your Honor, that all say that motive is not an element to the crime of first-degree murder. Let's talk about the text messages. These texts are in 2015 and 2016 predominantly maybe some in 2017 the detectors like oh yeah this continued up to 2021 and 2022 are you kidding me are you kidding me don't you think that the state who has the burden here that's higher than beyond a reasonable doubt would have hit print they don't exist your honor They don't exist.

What they show is they show dislike towards Ms. Bridegan, Mr. Bridegan. You have a friend venting to another friend over a very difficult co-parenting situation and a contentious divorce. And many adults in similar circumstances say the exact same thing. They are indicators of frustration, but not prove of a murder on February 16th of 2022. In retrospect, those words were clearly poor judgment, but poor judgment does not in any way equate to actual intent and does not prove misconduct, in this case, which would be a first-degree murder. There is zero, and I'll talk about this, there is zero evidence that was brought before you today of any act by Ms. Gardner that was done with the intent to carry out a plan

or directly carry out the murder of Jared Rodigan. I have to ask you, there's no money that can be, there's no amount that can be put on a human life. But I always am fascinated by the amount that people are paid to murder someone. And I mean, that's the allegation here. $150,000. Your take on what you've seen in terms of the amount that is exchanged or agreed upon in these murder for higher cases or suspected murder for higher cases. Yeah, it's usually quite low. And there's no real good rationale for this.

There's evidence to suggest the people who engage in hits may be ex-convicts. They may be living in rougher circumstances. And so any amount of money may seem palatable in order to engage in a hit, especially if you're in kind of dire straits and need money, $10,000 or $20,000 is a boom for you at the time. And so it aligns with what we know generally about how much hit men are paid. well the judge is going to take everyone's arguments under advisement he's expected to release a written ruling about gardener's bond in the coming day she is looking to have bond obviously prosecutors are opposing that real quick before i let you go i believe that bond is not going to be

something that's going to be on the table for her what do you think probably not just given the circumstances of the case it's something that will definitely pull the people's heart heartstrings, especially with the two-year-old involved. So I think that it may be a tougher call to give her bond, but it is possible, just given all the circumstances in the case, however, she probably won't. And by the way, this case, this hearing was almost like a mini trial where we learned a lot about the evidence. We kind of get a preview of the prosecution's case, preview of the defense's arguments. So it's fascinating to follow. Thomas Holt, thanks so much for coming on. Appreciate it. Absolutely. Thank you. All right, everybody. That's all we have for you right now here on

Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. As always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. modify.