The Jared Bridegan murder trial reached its first verdict Wednesday when a Duval County jury convicted Mario Fernandez Saldana of first-degree murder and solicitation, finding he helped orchestrate the roadside killing of a Microsoft executive in Florida.

It is the opening chapter in a prosecution that still has two more trials ahead.

A Killing Designed to Look Random

Jared Bridegan, 33, died on a road in Jacksonville Beach in February 2022.

He had just dropped his twins at his ex-wife’s house and was driving home when he encountered a tire sitting in the roadway. He stopped and got out to move it. He was shot execution-style as he did so.

His 2-year-old daughter, the child he shared with his second wife, was strapped into her car seat in the vehicle at the time.

The tire, prosecutors argued, was no accident. It was the mechanism that forced him to stop and step out.

Who Stands Accused

Three people have been charged in connection with the killing.

Fernandez Saldana, 38, was married to Bridegan’s ex-wife Shanna Gardner when the shooting occurred. Prosecutors describe him and Gardner as the architects of the plot.

The third defendant, Henry Tenon, is alleged to have pulled the trigger. Tenon had previously rented property from Fernandez Saldana.

The State’s Case

Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler built her argument around connection rather than presence.

Prosecutors alleged Fernandez Saldana recruited Tenon to carry out the shooting, maintained frequent contact with him during the months beforehand, helped obtain the weapon, and handed over at least $10,000 afterward.

She placed the motive within a bitter history between Bridegan and Gardner, describing years of hostility and a custody battle over their twins that she characterized as high conflict.

Stifler told jurors the scheme had been constructed specifically so nothing would lead back to Fernandez Saldana, then noted that it eventually did anyway.

The Tire That Unraveled It

The physical evidence that mattered most came from an unglamorous source.

Investigators located a tire at the rental property where Tenon had lived, owned by Fernandez Saldana, that matched the one recovered from the scene. Tenon’s DNA was found on the tire left in the road.

Stifler described the discovery as a combination of luck and solid police work.

She emphasized how the investigation actually progressed. Detectives did not identify Tenon on their own. They reached him through Fernandez Saldana’s call records and through the rental property he owned. In her framing, the defendant was the thread running through everything.

Behavior After the Arrest

Stifler also pointed to what happened once Tenon was taken into custody.

She alleged Fernandez Saldana began putting distance between himself and the case, wiping his phone and moving to sell the rental property. Prosecutors offered both actions as evidence of a guilty conscience.

The Defense Argument

Defense attorney Jesse Dreicer took the opposite approach, arguing the state had assembled suspicion rather than proof.

He told jurors his client had no motive, no desire, no reason, and gained nothing whatsoever from Bridegan’s death.

Dreicer pressed jurors to identify any actual evidence they had heard establishing that Fernandez Saldana wanted Bridegan dead or asked Tenon to kill him. His answer was that no such evidence existed.

The absence of forensic evidence at the scene was central to his case. No DNA, no eyewitness, no video placed Fernandez Saldana anywhere near the shooting.

Stifler addressed that directly. She argued the absence was the point, telling jurors that someone who outsources a murder does so precisely to keep their fingerprints and footprints far from the crime.

Fernandez Saldana pleaded not guilty and chose not to testify.

The Missing Witness

One notable feature of the trial was who did not appear.

Tenon, 65, was unavailable to testify. He had originally pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was expected to testify against both Fernandez Saldana and Gardner. He subsequently withdrew that plea and told his attorney he would not take the stand, according to court filings.

His own trial is scheduled for next year.

Prosecutors therefore secured a conviction without the alleged shooter’s account, relying instead on records, physical evidence, and inference.

The Family’s Response

Kirsten Bridegan, the victim’s widow, spoke to reporters after the verdict.

She said the truth had been visible in the courtroom, that the jury recognized it and responded accordingly, and that she was grateful. She added that justice had been served in part, and that the family looks toward the remainder still to come.

She had testified during the trial about the relationship between the two households, describing the co-parenting arrangement as pretty terrible and extremely tense.

What Remains

Shanna Gardner, 39, relocated to Washington state after the shooting and was arrested there in August 2023. She has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to stand trial in September.

Tenon follows next year.

Bridegan was a senior design manager at Microsoft and a father of four, including two children with Kirsten. He lived in St. Augustine.

Two more juries will now hear versions of the same story, with the outcome for the remaining defendants still unwritten.