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Alan Chipperfield, the attorney for the confessed hitman, Henry Tenon, told First Coast News Friday that Tenon’s move has nothing to do with his outburst in court.
NASSAU COUNTY, FLORIDA, Fla. — The man police and prosecutors say confessed to shooting and killing Jared Bridegan, a St. Augustine father of four, in 2022 has been moved to the Nassau County Jail, records show. He is currently listed as maximum security prisoner.
Henry Tenon, 64, had been in custody at the Duval County Jail from Jan. 25, 2023 up until Wednesday on charges related to what police have described as a “murder-for-hire” plot to kill Bridegan.
Tenon has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and admitted to being the one who pulled the trigger in the deadly ambush in Jacksonville Beach in February 2022. He is set to testify in the trial of Bridegan’s ex-wife Shanna Gardner and her second husband, Mario Fernandez-Saldana, who are accused of plotting to kill Bridegan and offering Tenon $150,000 to kill Bridegan.
Tenon’s move to the new jail comes just three weeks after Fernandez’s attorneys made a request to the Duval County court, asking for several documents related to Tenon saying “that he wanted to bring to the Court’s attention that his prior testimony was ‘false testimony,'” during a January hearing. However, records show Tenon was not able to explain to the judge what testimony he was talking about.
Tenon’s attorney Alan Chipperfield told First Coast News Friday that it is “quite common” to separate co-defendants. He said it had nothing to do with his client’s outburst in court, but explained that they discussed moving him and decided it would be done.
The request from Fernandez’s defense attorneys include a transcript of a Jan. 13 hearing, which reveals Tenon’s statements that sparked this request. The transcript provides a record of Tenon addressing Duval County Judge London Kite in front of the court that day.
Based on the evidence in this transcript, Fernandez’s attorneys are asking for any “information, correspondence, conversation summaries/notes, sidebar conversations, emails with Mr. Tenon’s counsel, the Court’s Judicial Assistant, the Clerk’s office, and/or the Court that provide information as to why Mr. Tenon was not brought back out to the courtroom (after the Court temporarily passed his case to allow him to speak with counsel).”
According to court records, Tenon is due back in court on April 14. Fernandez and Gardner will next appear in court March 28.
