The key witness in a murder case against a couple accused of orchestrating the brutal killing of a St. Johns father will no longer testify against them, according to a court filing.
Henry Tenon, the alleged triggerman who initially confessed to the murder, is now refusing to cooperate with prosecutors in their case against Shanna Gardner and Mario Saldana and will instead go to trial.
“Mr. Tenon…will not testify against Shanna Lee Gardner or Mario Enrique Fernandez Saldana,” wrote his attorney in a motion filed Feb. 13 in Duval County. “Mr. Tenon requests this Honorable Court exercise her discretion to permit Mr. Tenon to withdraw his previously entered plea of guilt and set his case for trial.”
Gardner and Saldana, who were married at the time of the crime, are charged with planning the Feb. 16, 2022, ambush shooting of Gardner’s ex-husband, 33-year-old Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan.
Prosecutors allege the attack was motivated by a bitter divorce and custody dispute and that the couple used their knowledge of Bridegan’s routines to plan the killing.
Investigators say Bridegan was targeted shortly after dropping off his 9-year-old twin children—whom he shared with Gardner—at the Jacksonville Beach home she shared with Saldana.
While driving home, he stopped to move a tire deliberately placed in the road. As he stepped out of his vehicle, Tenon allegedly shot him multiple times.
Bridegan’s 2-year-old daughter, Bexley, who was strapped into a car seat, witnessed the attack and remained alone at the scene until a passerby stopped to help her.
Tenon, who had been Saldana’s tenant in a dilapidated Jacksonville rental, initially pleaded guilty to fatally shooting Bridegan, admitting that he carried out the hit in exchange for payment.
Prosecutors said Tenon tracked Bridegan’s movements in advance, even staking out a Nocatee gym Bridegan’s children attended.
Under the deal, if Tenon testified truthfully against Gardner and Saldana, the state attorney agreed to recommend a minimum of 15 years at sentencing.
In a separate development last month, the state attorney’s office withdrew its intent to seek the death penalty against Gardner and Saldana.
The decision was supported by the victim’s widow, Kirsten Bridegan, who cited concern for the emotional toll a capital trial would take on Bridegan’s four children.
Bridegan has two children with his widow, in addition to the twins he shares with Gardner.
Gardner and Saldana are slated to go to trial Aug. 10.
