Accused killer Shanna Gardner’s son told investigators where to find her electronics when they searched her Washington state home for evidence connected to the murder of her ex-husband Jared Bridegan, new court documents reveal.
Investigators descended on Gardner’s residence in February 2023 to execute a search warrant months before placing her under arrest for allegedly plotting Bridegan’s 2022 Jacksonville Beach slaying.
Gardner’s two children, then 11, whom she shares with Bridegan, and her mother, Shelli Gardner, were present when law enforcement officers told the rattled group they were “looking for phones.”
“Like burner phones?” Gardner’s son asked.
The child then said “his mom keeps all her ‘important’ electronics in her ‘bedroom closet,’ and then whispered ‘up above’ pointing towards the ceiling,” the papers state.
The agents recovered several devices, including at least one burner phone. Gardner’s high-powered attorney Jose Baez, who famously won an acquittal for Casey Anthony, told the Citizen there is nothing suspicious about his client’s use of a burner phone.
“What would you do if the police were listening in to your calls?” he asked. “Send mail? I’m sure you would look for other ways to communicate with the people you love.”
Shanna Gardner, alongside her now estranged husband Mario Fernandez, is facing first-degree murder charges for allegedly hiring Jacksonville handyman Henry Tenon to shoot Bridegan Feb. 16, 2022.
The new documents allege that Tenon trailed Bridegan roughly two weeks before the hit, once at his daughter’s gymnastics practice and once near his St. Johns County home. Fernandez’s phone pinged off a cell tower near Tenon’s home for more than an hour the day before Bridegan was killed.
The 33-year-old father of four lived with his new wife, Kirsten, and their daughters London and Bexley. He had just dropped off his two kids with Gardner at her home when he stopped his car to move a tire that was placed in the middle of the road.
Bridegan was shot to death in front of Bexley, then 2, who was strapped in her car seat and narrowly survived the ambush, officials said.
Gardner and Bridegan divorced in 2015 but remained locked in a bruising custody battle over the children.
Tenon pleaded guilty and has agreed to cooperate against Gardner and Fernandez, who face the death penalty if convicted.
Hailing from a wealthy Utah family, Gardner has pleaded not guilty.
Tenon was allegedly promised $150,000 for the hit, according to prosecutors.
Gardner, who has been locked up since her arrest, is due back in court Sept. 23.
In the wake of the tragic killing, Kirsten Bridegan launched the Bridegan Foundation in her husband’s name, which donates boxes of childcare essentials to police stations.
