JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Court TV) — A couple charged in the death of Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan accused the victim of having “ulterior motives” in his first marriage and suggested his second wife was the killer in interviews with police.
Shanna Gardner and Mario Fernandez Saldana are facing charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and child abuse in the death of Bridegan, who was shot and killed after dropping his two older children off at Gardner’s home on Feb. 16, 2022.
Shanna Gardner and her husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, are charged with murdering Gardner’s ex-husband, Jared Bridegan. (Court TV)
Gardner and Bridegan shared custody of the two children after their acrimonious divorce. Both had remarried, and Bridegan shared a young child with his second wife, Kirsten Bridegan. That young child was in the car when Bridegan was shot and killed.
Court TV obtained hundreds of pages of investigative reports in the case, which detail interviews with witnesses who saw Bridegan’s body lying in the road. Police say he was lured out of his car by a tire that had been placed in the road, and when he got out to investigate he was shot and killed. One witness who was driving behind Bridegan’s vehicle told officers that he thought Bridegan was going to change his tire and was about to offer to help when he saw “the victim was on the ground, twitching and moving.”