Court records indicate prosecutors have withdrawn charges against both Shanna Gardner and Henry Tenon.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Shanna Gardner and Henry Tenon will be tried together in the killing of Gardner’s former husband, Jared Bridegan, according to a Thursday memorandum from the State Attorney’s Office.
Bridegan, a St. Augustine father of four, was shot and killed on Feb. 16, 2022, shortly after dropping off the twin children he shared with Gardner at her Jacksonville Beach home. He stopped to move a tire blocking the road in Gardner’s neighborhood and was fatally shot as he did so.
Prosecutors have characterized the killing as a planned murder-for-hire scheme, citing the strained co-parenting relationship and custody dispute between Gardner and Bridegan. The state alleges that Gardner and her estranged husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, hired Tenon to carry out the killing. Saldana was convicted of Bridegan’s murder on Aug. 26.
On Thursday, prosecutors also dismissed additional charges against Gardner and Tenon. The state dropped a child abuse count against both defendants, while Gardner no longer faces a separate charge of solicitation to commit a capital felony.
Prosecutors had already dismissed two charges against Tenon in February: conspiracy to commit murder and accessory after the fact.
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Under a new single indictment, Gardner and Tenon each face a first-degree murder charge. Gardner also is charged with conspiracy to commit murder, while Tenon faces an additional count of possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.
Curtis Fallgatter, a former federal prosecutor, said the state may have a stronger case for proving conspiracy against Gardner than solicitation.
“They’re really going to try to prove that she had a conspiracy with Fernandez to assassinate her husband, and they probably can’t draw a direct link between her and Tenon,” he said. “So, to charge her with solicitation of Tenon, which she probably didn’t do, that would have come through Fernandez, so she probably never even talked to Tenon. So, it’s smart for the government to drop the solicitation cause they can’t really prove that she did it.”
The joint trial is scheduled to begin May 10, 2027, with jury selection expected to start the previous week.