The Murder of Jared Bridegan: The Trial of Mario Fernandez-Saldana: Day One: Opening Statements and More

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[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_01] I'm Anya Kane, and today on The Murder Sheet, we're going to be talking about day one of the first trial in the Jared Bridegan murder case. Content warning. This episode contains discussion of murder and violence, as well as suicide. All righty, so today is Monday, August 17th, 2026, and today has been a long time coming.

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_01] Back in 2022, in February 16th specifically, five years ago, a man named Jared Bridegan was ambushed and murdered as he drove home down a dark street in Florida, in Jacksonville Beach, and was shot to death. Not only is that so heinous, but the murder occurred in front of his two-year-old daughter, who was strapped into the car seat at the time. It's a really horrible case.

[00:04:24] [SPEAKER_01] And now, finally, we're starting the first of three trials in the case, and we're going to talk about day one of that first trial, which is against Mario Fernandez-Saldana, who is the new husband of Jared's ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, who will be going to trial after him. These two are believed to have orchestrated a murder plot against Jared and to have brought in the third person, Henry Tennant, who will go on trial after Gardner.

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_01] Ben's basically hired gunman to put a hit out on Jared because of a contentious ongoing dispute over custody of the twin children that Jared shared with Gardner. So we've just done a multi-part deep dive into this case, into the investigation. But now we're going further. We're going to talk about the trial and get into all the legal mechanisms and what is going on at that trial. So let's get into it. My name is Anya Kane. I'm a journalist.

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_03] And I'm Kevin Greenlee. I'm an attorney. And this is The Murder Sheet. We're a true crime podcast focused on original reporting, interviews, and deep dives into murder cases. We're The Murder Sheet.

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_01] And this is the murder of Jared Bridegan, the trial of Mario Fernandez-Saldana, day one, opening statements and more.

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_01] So today I basically spent all day watching this first day of trial. We got to I got to see opening statements. I got to see some of the initial witnesses they put on. And I have thoughts and we want to share our thoughts and then share some analysis. And I think one thing, though, I do want to say before we get into it, Kevin, is that I think there's a little scene setting just from some of the most high point issues in pretrial as far as this case goes.

[00:06:58] [SPEAKER_01] I mentioned the three defendants at the top of this. They're all having separate trials back to back to back. And this is in Duval County in Florida. So one thing that was perhaps the most interesting thing for me is that at one point, Henry Tennant, the gunman or the alleged gunman, was looking seemingly to plead guilty. But then he was able to basically undo that plea and now he's going to trial. Can you talk about that, Kevin, and why that's, you know, maybe a little unusual?

[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_03] Well, it's rather unusual because obviously when a person pleads guilty, typically they are saying, I did it. And a trial is about trying to determine whether or not somebody did it. So when you already have an admission from the person involved. That's interesting. I'm not sure. I haven't really looked into it. I'm not sure what in particular made him decide to change his plea.

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_03] But sometimes a person can make a plea and then decide, well, maybe they don't have the evidence I thought they did. Or maybe there's some sort of problem with their case. Maybe they'll have a more difficult time convicting me than I thought. So I'd rather take do a roll of the dice.

[00:08:12] [SPEAKER_01] You know, when I look at Henry Tennant, and this is this kind of elderly former tenant of Mario's, of Fernandez Saldanez, who is a suspected gunman in this case. And Tennant is facing an utterly damning case. To the extent that the defense team in this trial basically was like, yeah, Tennant did it. We acknowledge that.

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_01] So, like, when I feel like he's facing, he's looking down the barrel of the gun, so to speak. And unless there are severe issues with his case that I'm not aware of, which there certainly could be, it seems like a real mistake strategically for him not to be throwing himself effectively on the mercy of the prosecution team and saying, I will give you the masterminds.

[00:09:02] [SPEAKER_01] Because typically I've found in conspiracy cases, understandably, like, we want to know who arranged it. Normally it's like, well, who pulled the trigger? But in a case where it's like someone's hired, we want to get the people who's like the evil in their hearts is what prompted the situation. Right. And if, you know, if he could have delivered that but then is backing out, it seems really not like a good move from my perspective. But there's a lot we don't know. And maybe there are reasons for that. So we've got to be open-minded. That would be my thing.

[00:09:33] [SPEAKER_01] Trials are slow beasts that lumber around and cases are the same way. And there's lots of different issues. So I want to say, like, we're going to be hearing from the prosecution first. I do think it's important, though, to really try to, like, give both sides a chance as much as possible. It doesn't mean we have to entertain stupid things, but we can at least hear everyone out. All right.

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_03] Absolutely.

[00:09:56] [SPEAKER_01] Would you agree, sir?

[00:09:57] [SPEAKER_03] Absolutely.

[00:09:58] [SPEAKER_01] All right. So Judge London Kite is preserving. She's a former assistant state attorney who served in that capacity from 2003 to when she was appointed to the bench. And she assumed office in 2021. And her term is over in 2031. And I will just say I really liked her. I thought she had a very calming demeanor, kept everything flowing. So, I mean, it's day one. But, you know, props to her.

[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_01] So, Fernandez-Saldana, the defendant, appears looking very different in past photographs. We would see him long hair, beard. Here they've really, I guess, you know, trimmed his hair a lot, clean shaven in a gray suit. It's all about putting out a certain image of kind of who could this guy do anything bad? You know, kind of harmlessness to a jury. And, you know, that's no statement on anything. That's just pretty common.

[00:10:54] [SPEAKER_01] For the defense, I owe you, rather for the state, Kevin, I owe you an apology. While we were recording our episodes, I was always correcting you and saying it's Christina Stifler, not Stifler.

[00:11:06] [SPEAKER_03] And I was saying it correctly?

[00:11:07] [SPEAKER_01] You were saying it correctly. It's Stifler. So I apologize to this.

[00:11:10] [SPEAKER_03] I appreciate that.

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_01] I apologize to this accomplished woman. And I shan't do it again. So she is the attorney for the state. Now, this is what's so interesting to me is, like, she actually was at the murder site. Like, you see that in the report. She was the prosecutor on call who shows up, sees this dead body and everything. So she's really, truly been with this case from the beginning. And I imagine that has to weigh on her. And then there's also another assistant state attorney, Alan Mizrahi.

[00:11:39] [SPEAKER_01] And also Steve Siegel for the state. And then for the defense, you have Jesse Dreiser and James Hill. And then he also mentioned Shannon Day. I think there was also a Jenny Nestad. But I don't know if she's a – I think she may be a paralegal, not an attorney. And someone named Mr. DeSoney. So I apologize. I did not get his first name. They go over the instructions.

[00:12:02] [SPEAKER_01] Why is it so important for attorneys and the judge and everybody to have instructions for the jury going into this? Like, why – like, people might be like, well, isn't it – like, we know how the trial works. Why do we need to be instructed in detail about everything going into it?

[00:12:18] [SPEAKER_03] Well, it's very important that both sides agree on what exact instructions are going to be given to the jury because the jury is going to be really focusing on those and using those as a framework for how they arrive at their decision, how they arrive at their verdict, in other words. So a phrase here or a word there can make a little bit of difference in the mind of an impressionable journey, juror.

[00:12:47] [SPEAKER_03] So there's often a lot of back and forth that goes on on both sides as they try to arrive at wording that both sides feel they can live with.

[00:12:56] [SPEAKER_01] And then you also have the attorneys basically going into what – how they're going to refer to all the exhibits, like just kind of housekeeping stuff. And the judge noted to the jury when they filed in, we're doing that to keep things rolling along smoothly so we're not causing chaos and wasting all these people's time. Why is it important to a judge and a court to not – I mean, it seems pretty self-evident. They talk a lot about like we don't want to waste your time. You're giving up weeks of your life. We don't want to have to do this again.

[00:13:25] [SPEAKER_01] And also we don't want to waste your time. Can you speak to that, like the court's time?

[00:13:30] [SPEAKER_03] One thing to keep in mind, first of all, obviously you want to respect the time of all the jurors who come in. That's an enormous sacrifice. Anybody who's ever served on a trial, even if it's a short trial, recognizes that that's an enormous inconvenience. And when you have a more complicated trial that could go into weeks or even a month or more, that becomes even more of a consideration.

[00:13:54] [SPEAKER_03] But another thing to remember is the court itself typically has a very, very crowded calendar. Any time you and I have gone and sat in a courtroom together, there's always a bunch of cases that have to be handled, a lot of stuff going on. So the judge doesn't want to waste any time because the more time you waste on one case, the longer other people have to wait.

[00:14:19] [SPEAKER_01] So the jury comes in. Judge Kite is very warm with them, greeting them, and talks about the preliminary instructions and then notes that next up, she kind of outlines how the day is going to go. Next up, we'll have opening statements if the attorneys want to give them. She notes that she's the judge of law and that the jurors are the judges of fact. So she will be saying she's saying their roles don't overlap. She'll be guiding everyone through what laws apply.

[00:14:46] [SPEAKER_01] And then the jurors will be left to determine what are the facts. What do we believe? What do we think is accurate? And she talked about how they'll be relying on sworn testimony on exhibits. And you have to base it on the evidence, those things and the law. And the indictment in this case is not evidence. They can't just, well, he was indicted, so he must be guilty. They have to look at this. They have to determine if the state truly proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

[00:15:17] [SPEAKER_01] One thing that was discussed beforehand and that the defense wanted her to mention was instructions on drawing an inference of guilt because the defendant is maintaining their right to remain silent. Can you talk about that? Why might a jury draw something either way from that? And why is that inappropriate to do?

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER_03] I think people have a natural tendency to imagine, well, if somebody accused me of a terrible crime and I didn't do it, I'd want to tell the world I didn't do it. I'd want to stand up and say, I didn't do this. And so they tend to think sometimes that when an accused person doesn't testify, well, maybe it's because they're guilty. Maybe it's because they have a guilty conscience.

[00:16:01] [SPEAKER_01] Really because they have good lawyers.

[00:16:02] [SPEAKER_03] And so it's important to realize there are very good reasons not to testify in your own defense at a trial. As you indicated, any good lawyer would be apt to advise their client not to testify because it can be a real minefield that can cause more harm to your case than good. And so it is important that the jurors be told, don't assume they're guilty just because they're not testifying.

[00:16:28] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah. Now, you know, we're not the jury. We're not in the court. We can think whatever we want in my viewpoint. Like, I think you guys can all have common sense about this. But I also think, you know, there are instances where guilty people testify on their own behalf and it falls apart and they look awful. And then you have innocent people who don't testify because maybe there's enough there that the prosecution might be able to cross them on that they would trip them up. But it's really more of a strategic thing than like a you're guilty or innocent.

[00:16:57] [SPEAKER_01] And it's a choice based on that thing. In my view, it's just strategy. Sometimes defense attorneys where they feel like they have a good case, they'll actually put somebody on because they know that they're going to appeal to the jury and that they're credible. And, you know, that can be like a slam dunk. Like that can be the thing that almost like wins the day for the defense. But I think those are few and far between. It often is more risky than anything else. They talk about, you know, don't don't focus too much on your notes like stuff, you know, like write for your memory.

[00:17:25] [SPEAKER_01] But we're going to destroy these notes when this is over. So no one's going to ever read them. Do not communicate with your friends, your family, with fellow jurors. You can only talk with fellow jurors about this case when you guys are deliberating at the end here. Don't be talking to people. If people are talking at you about the case, run and tell the bailiff and we'll deal with it. So, you know, the jury room has no Internet and phone capabilities. Do not research or investigate cheap.

[00:17:50] [SPEAKER_01] Explain like the reason for that is because if you're just doing your own sleuthing, you know, then the judge and the parties won't be able to make sure the information is proper and accurate. And they won't be able to respond to it or challenge the accuracy of it. So, like, you know, don't be don't be doing any of this. So that's how we got started.

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[00:21:42] [SPEAKER_01] Then it came time for the state to open up their case. Again, in a criminal trial in the United States, the state goes first, then the defense, and then any rebuttals, and then we'll, you know, then you go to closing arguments. So Christina Stifler did the opening, and she really took us through the whole case. She told a narrative. I really liked her opening.

[00:22:06] [SPEAKER_01] She talked about how the sort of dark irony of Jared Bridegan being murdered in a place called Sanctuary, and how he found no sanctuary there. He was ambushed and murdered, the opposite of Sanctuary. She painted a picture of February. I think I wrote down, hell yeah, because I just thought it was very poetic and just very empathetic. And I thought she brought a real kind of storytelling ability to it. But I liked her opening. I thought it was effective. And it sort of drew you in.

[00:22:36] [SPEAKER_01] And one thing she said that I found really haunting that I never thought of really was, Jared is this father. He loves his kids. He's shot in the street. And he knows his car's shot up. He knows presumably something is bad with, you know, something went horribly wrong and he's injured. And for the for the moments he may have been conscious before he lost consciousness and died, he had to have been thinking about his daughter and to not be able to get up and

[00:23:05] [SPEAKER_01] get her and make sure she was OK, that she was not injured is like a parent's worst nightmare. And the fact that he died in that state is so tragic. Like no one deserves this. And it's horrible. You know, I never I never put that together about like what his final thoughts probably were. And I find that very chilling. She kind of describes what we've described too many times. February 16th, 2022, night of the murder.

[00:23:31] [SPEAKER_01] He has just dropped off the twins with their mother, Shanna Gardner, and is leaving, leaving this area. And they also she goes into more description of the road like it has truly kind of raised curves. It's one way. This tire blocked him entirely. There was no driving around the tire and to drive into the curb. It's a high curb. Plus this trees like that would have been risky. What it really forces you to do is get out and move the thing. And and that's what he did.

[00:24:01] [SPEAKER_01] He shot somebody fires for 10 millimeter bullets at him from a weapon. Two of them hit the vehicle, almost hitting this two year old child. Two went into Jared and he is unable to move. He presumably loses conscience at some point, consciousness at some point. And he is in a pool of his own blood in the street. The two year old is strapped. They're trapped.

[00:24:24] [SPEAKER_01] She's fully aware something very bad has happened to her father and is crying and very upset, understandably. And no one sees this. No one witnesses this. You know, I thought she was very careful to mention some of the, you know, drawbacks of the case or not. I shouldn't say drawbacks, realities like no one saw this. Nobody can say we saw this guy do it. But there is footage.

[00:24:50] [SPEAKER_01] So she would do things where she'd kind of like almost like portray their investigation and the state's case a bit like the underdog. You know what I mean? Where it's like, yeah, we don't have this, but we do have that. And I thought that was strong because when you I think the worst thing you can do in any of these things, whether your state or defense is like over exaggerate or like be like this is, you know, we have everything. Well, do you have this? Well, no. I mean, what do you think? Like, is that a good strategy or is that risky?

[00:25:19] [SPEAKER_01] Because the jury might be like, well, it doesn't sound like they have a good case.

[00:25:22] [SPEAKER_03] No, it's a good strategy. It's better to under promise and over deliver than over promise and under deliver.

[00:25:28] [SPEAKER_01] And she talks about these initial witnesses and we'll get more to them. We actually hear from some of them today taking care of the child, the child telling something happened to my daddy, hearing loud booms. Are police going to help my daddy? It's really heartbreaking to hear with this little girl who must have been like terrified and just not so confused about what's going on. Like, imagine a two year old just being in this situation like it's horrible. And she talks about how this was premeditated murder.

[00:25:56] [SPEAKER_01] Somebody was picked, hired, solicited for the purpose of killing Jared Bridegan. And then they disappeared into the night. And that person has no link to Jared. But there is a trail back to the people who planned and financed this. And she referred to the architects of the crime wanting it to be the perfect crime. And it almost was. Then she singles out. Again, she's kind of making it sound like a very powerful conspiracy. And then she singles out the surveillance camera where it shows the shooting.

[00:26:25] [SPEAKER_01] It shows a man running away. I don't think it's one of those videos where you can crisply see a lot or you can crisply see a man's face. It's like, you know, it's one of those nighttime surveillance cameras. And, you know, but there's no dispute ahead of time. There's no signs of robbery. This looks like a hit. This looks like someone's waiting for Jared. And what she also noted is that, you know, the surveillance footage also doesn't show.

[00:26:50] [SPEAKER_01] It shows traffic passing along completely unobstructed minutes before Jared's car arrived there. And what she described is like if the tire had been in the road, then people would have had to stop. And so somebody put this tire out knowing Jared was essentially behind them and was going to stop. So it was that was very compelling. One thing that I thought was really interesting, I want to get your take on, Kevin, is at one point she said that, you know, basically talking about the investigation,

[00:27:20] [SPEAKER_01] she said the officers that night were young and inexperienced. Homicides don't typically happen in Jacksonville Beach. It's a pretty safe area. And, you know, it's not something that they're necessarily like expecting. What do you make of that? What is she trying to get ahead of?

[00:27:38] [SPEAKER_03] I think that's a great way of trying to give the jurors a frame or a prism through which to see things that might come out in the trial. So, in other words, if it comes out that some mistakes were made in the investigation, they're not going to think, oh, these guys were incompetent, corrupt boobs. They'll just think, oh, these people are young.

[00:28:03] [SPEAKER_03] They haven't had a lot of experience in this because this is a nice town, or at least it was before these people came here and brought this violence with them.

[00:28:11] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah, it seemed a little when I was looking when I was looking at the filings. And, of course, those were all police reports. Like, nothing stood out to me of, like, wow, these guys botched it. It did stick out to me of, like, wow, it took them a long time to put this all together. And that could be not their fault or that could be partly their fault or that could be totally their fault, you know. But nothing stood out to me of, like, oh, my gosh, they really messed things up. So I thought it was – it just struck me as a little harsh.

[00:28:38] [SPEAKER_01] But maybe it's kind of foreshadowing some problems. And I kind of got a hint of maybe something the defense may harp on that they went into in their opening statement. But, yeah, that surprised me a little bit about how blunt it was. But at the same time, I imagine, you know, they're probably thinking strategically. And I agree, you definitely – you want to be like, well, it's better to be like, well, we don't normally deal with this versus, like, you know, we're totally incompetent or we botched it on purpose or something.

[00:29:09] [SPEAKER_01] But at the same time, I kind of wonder if it could backfire because if even the prosecution is saying, well, these were young, experienced, youthful officers who have no idea what's going on, that might make a jerk kind of be like, well, then, you know, how do we know? Like, you know, it kind of would make – it might make me question things. So anyways. Then she does praise them a bit, talks about how they use cutting-edge technology and old-fashioned police work to kind of make, you know, make a case.

[00:29:37] [SPEAKER_01] And that this was a – you know, they talked – she talked about this tire and the tire being the murder weapon just as much as a firearm because it trapped Jared there. And she asked the jury basically who benefits from Jared's murder, who really wants him dead. And that the years-long investigation came up with the answer for that, which was Shanna Gardner and Mario Fernandez-Saldana.

[00:30:03] [SPEAKER_01] And that they – that now because of that, Fernandez-Saldana is facing two counts. They dropped two of them. Two – first-degree murder, premeditated, and solicitation to commit a felony, a.k.a. first-degree murder. They're going to go through a week and a half of the trial. And she did one of those classic prosecutor things that I – again, we should have a bingo card because I feel like I've heard this so often. And you know what? It's a really good thing to say.

[00:30:31] [SPEAKER_01] So, I mean, I don't blame everyone – anyone for bringing this up again and again. I think it's a good thing for a prosecutor to say. But, like, you know, you're going to look at the evidence. But you're also going to have a superpower that you bring into the – I don't think she called it a superpower. But, like, you're going to have a superpower that you bring into the room, and that's your common sense. Why would a prosecutor – why does every prosecutor love to tell a jury, like, don't forget your common sense?

[00:30:56] [SPEAKER_03] Again, it's a way to kind of give people a lens through which to view things that are going to happen in the trial. And oftentimes in trials, you will see the defense attorney stand up and say, well, they say my client is guilty. But he wouldn't be guilty if there were, like, aliens bringing a fleet of foxes and wolves to the moon or something like that.

[00:31:22] [SPEAKER_03] And it's important to kind of tell them when you hear things like that, use your common sense and ask yourself, is this scenario I'm being presented with, does it make sense?

[00:31:36] [SPEAKER_01] Because, yeah, you could always think of, like, well, what if a gang member just happened to be confused and thought Jared was, like, the rival kingpin and just got lost on his way to Orlando? Like, you know, like, you could – like, okay, could that happen in life? I guess. Is there any evidence for it? No. So that's common sense. It doesn't even have to be the defense acting totally bizarre. It can be – the defense can say, well, listen, my client didn't confess to it while standing on his head and, you know, trying to juggle things.

[00:32:02] [SPEAKER_01] Like, you know, they can say, well, he never said he did it, you know, but – which might be true. But it's like, yeah, but does all the evidence add up here? Or, you know, it just kind of – now, again, they're going to try to – the prosecution as much as possible is going to try to expand everyone's ability to find guilt, find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. And the defense is really going to try to narrow that window. Exactly. So it's a lot harder to get through. So that's what you're having.

[00:32:27] [SPEAKER_01] So they talk about how Bridegan and Gardner were married early, married young. Both were in the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter-day Saints. They were married. They had two – when children moved from Utah, ended up in Jacksonville, Florida. Jared was very religious, wanted to raise the kids within the faith. She wanted to leave the church. They had strife, got divorced. That was interesting that they – she almost kind of almost implied that it was because of the religious strife. So I don't know. Like, that may have come after.

[00:32:56] [SPEAKER_01] It's been – there's been different things said. Talked about how she – Gardner and Fernanda Saldana met at the gym. She grew up wealthy in Utah. They didn't have a lot in common. And that – in the words of the prosecution, it was a marriage of convenience. It was transactional. It was a deal that he even described as a deal to help her with the kids and with Jared. The two couples did not amicably co-parent between Gardner and Fernanda Saldana and Kirsten and Jared, Kirsten being Jared's new wife.

[00:33:24] [SPEAKER_01] And, you know, basically the prosecutor said that Gardner despised the idea that Jared wanted to bring the kids in the church and that there were certain indications that she was going to – wanted the full custody of them. Talked about how Fernanda Saldana told the kids – told the police that the kids were better off without Jared. How, you know, told the police that there was a trust fund. It turns out that Fernanda Saldana was the trustee of that trust fund. We've gone into all of that in the past.

[00:33:52] [SPEAKER_01] And that basically until Jared was out of Gardner's life, either because I guess the kids would have turned 18 and custody would not be an issue because they'd be an adult or because he's dead. She would not have full access to her money because someone would have to be a trustee that she'd have to go through to get that money.

[00:34:12] [SPEAKER_01] Talked about how the couple was planning to separate, but Fernanda Saldana was then facing, according to the state, no longer having this fancy house, no longer, you know, having access to all this money. But then suddenly they're still legally married to this day. And he, after the murder, remained trustee. A week after Jared's murder, he transferred $50,000 from the trust to his own checking account.

[00:34:40] [SPEAKER_01] That sounds really bad because to me what that sounds like is what the state is saying is that he almost did – Gardner told him, well, I don't think we're in love anymore. And he almost did her a favor so he could keep the gravy train running. Is that what that sounds like to you?

[00:34:56] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, that's the implication in my mind.

[00:34:58] [SPEAKER_01] Talked about how Gardner since moved away to Washington State, living in a massive home, purchased through her parents' LLC. Fernanda Saldana moved to Orlando, still married. Talked about how at one point the defense objected because she basically says the proof shows that nobody else wanted to kill Jared. So she kind of had to rephrase that. And she talks about how Jared was extremely risk adverse. He wasn't doing any risky behaviors.

[00:35:27] [SPEAKER_01] He didn't have a ton of friends. He didn't have drama with anyone else. He worked from home. He had few hobbies. No evidence of anything. Quiet life. He's a devout LDS guy, you know, devout Mormon. And he, you know, like, he's not got, like, a lot of risky stuff going on or a lot of beefs with people. Talked about tower dumps, geofencing, surveillance. Talked about how, like, nothing was a huge lead at first. They're just looking for surveillance and eyewitnesses.

[00:35:55] [SPEAKER_01] How they were looking at the tire from this Ford F-150 and how they're seeing this blue truck, blue Ford 1F50 with a tan stripe on the running board going right in front of Jared's car, trying to create distance, trying to get there ahead of him, presumably to set the tire out. And they expand the surveillance. They keep looking.

[00:36:17] [SPEAKER_01] Somebody leaving to take out the trash, like, triggers a video that then sees the truck an hour earlier at the murder site going that way and then stopping, nearly stopping, slowing down significantly and nearly stopping at the very site where Jared would be killed. So, like, doing this practice run. Talked about how the truck seemingly waited at Pablo Hamlet nearby, just directly behind the Marsh Inlet home where Gardner lived for, like, 20 minutes after the murder.

[00:36:47] [SPEAKER_01] Talked about, you know, just all the tracking the truck all around. And talked about how at that point they said that Jacksonville Beach didn't have license plate readers at that point, just make and model an appearance. I know Jacksonville did, because that's in some of the police reports. Talked about the expended, you know, so basically he's shot multiple times. There are, there's the cartridges that are found.

[00:37:15] [SPEAKER_01] There are the ejected shell casings that are found that basically their firearms forensic people say were likely from a Glock. And one thing they note that's important is this, like, not a lot of people would have known Jared would have been in Jacksonville Beach that night. That night was part of his routine. It's part of the routine of the daddy date night that he would take the twins on that they had been doing for several months.

[00:37:39] [SPEAKER_01] But, like, not a lot of people would have known where he was exactly and certainly not his route that he would always use to leave that area. So then they talk about expanding the interviews and they talk about that kind of pivotal moment where they meet Jeremy Ordway and Henry Tennant and find this other tire stacked up against that house on Potomac Avenue. That Fernandez Saldana rented to Ordway at that point.

[00:38:04] [SPEAKER_01] And how it had the same Department of Transportation number, same, meaning it was made in the same factory the same week as the tire at the crime scene. So that's pretty bad, right?

[00:38:14] [SPEAKER_03] That's very bad.

[00:38:15] [SPEAKER_01] That's really bad. Talked about how Tennant was a guy who was essentially homeless for a while for part of his life, how he had all these issues. He was a convicted felon. They show a picture of him. He looks kind of rough. He's in his 60s. He's kind of got these yellow eyes. Like, he doesn't look well. And he, you know, basically was a day laborer, worked for a pallet company and had these felonies, was behind on child support. His wages were being garnished. So he wasn't doing very well in life.

[00:38:43] [SPEAKER_01] And frankly, he's a guy like he has no connection to Jared. He doesn't know Jared. But he's also, like, not a guy, like, from what they never, I mean, there's no indication he was, like, going around attacking random people, you know? Like, like, there's not, like, a hint that I can tell of, like, oh, he might just shoot somebody randomly. I mean, like, what do you think?

[00:39:05] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, I've seen nothing that would indicate anything like that.

[00:39:08] [SPEAKER_01] So it's, like, significant that he is, he's ultimately the trigger man because it's, like, why would he do this? He had no problem with Jared. He didn't know the guy. They, you know, there's no connection.

[00:39:21] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, the only connection is Saldana.

[00:39:23] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah, because Tenen, as I mentioned, is was the former tenant of Fernandez Saldana and talks about how he was his phone showed him in Jacksonville Beach the night of the murder, a block away from the homicide scene minutes after the murder. Again, very bad for Tenen. And somebody who was wearing a jacket and boots that looked similar to stuff he owned was seen in surveillance footage.

[00:39:54] [SPEAKER_01] And, like, so someone, it would have to be two people involved in the murder because someone was driving the truck and then somebody, they say Tenen, is walking around after the shooting. Things get worse for Tenen from here. His DNA is found, they track down his truck in this backyard of his family friend named Jimmy Jones. They find his DNA in the truck.

[00:40:22] [SPEAKER_01] They also find the DNA on the keys that unlock this Ford F-150. And they also find his DNA on a swab of the inner rim of the tire at the crime scene. Again, how bad is this case for Tenen right now?

[00:40:36] [SPEAKER_03] It's very bad. I can certainly understand why he originally pled guilty.

[00:40:39] [SPEAKER_01] Why on earth would he not keep that plea? I mean, I would imagine that any defense attorney worth their salt, unless there's some huge issue we're not aware of, would be like, you need to do something about this. Because, I mean, these are really bad facts for this man. Whereas anything with somebody who's hiring someone who's higher up in the conspiracy, it's going to be more tenuous. Because they're hiring someone else to do it so it doesn't come back to them. They're taking steps.

[00:41:08] [SPEAKER_01] At this point, Stifler talks about other associates of Fernandez Saldana. She talks about this link between the 10mm Glock and John Biggerstaff, who is, of course, the former Navy man and former Jacksonville Sheriff's Office reserve officer who was dear friends with Fernandez Saldana for many, many years. Fernandez Saldana was actually having sex with his wife as part of some sort of swinger operation.

[00:41:33] [SPEAKER_01] And he'd also dated his daughter, which is a pretty creepy thing, in my opinion. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Not trying to sound judgmental, but like, good Lord. That's that's that he was doing too much with this family. So he is, you know, that's happening. They're talking about how bigger he went to Biggerstaff's house the night of the murder. Fernandez Saldana called him right after the murder. Like, you know, one of the people he told about the murder.

[00:42:03] [SPEAKER_01] And he was, you know, they talk about how he had been fired from JSO, how he was supposed to surrender his firearms because of that years before to his son, Juan Biggerstaff, including a Glock older model 10mm firearm. But nobody knows where that gun is. They're acting like they can't find it. Him and his son, Juan, are acting like they don't know where it is. You know. They're acting like they basically just lost a gun.

[00:42:32] [SPEAKER_01] And it just happened so happens to be the same type of gun that they think killed Jared, you know, killed in a situation involving one of his close family friends. So, again, they know Biggerstaff has no link to Jared. And Tenen wouldn't have known about Jared.

[00:42:53] [SPEAKER_01] So, they talk about there was one person between the defendant and staying in his marriage to Gardner and getting all the benefits of that. And that was Jared. So, they said for basically them it was about controlling money, controlling the freedom of Gardner and controlling her children. So, that Gardner is all about control and that Fernandez Saldana is the guy she goes to to get this done.

[00:43:19] [SPEAKER_01] And then Tenen is the guy he, you know, basically hires to do it. They talk more about the checks that I thought were interesting. So, Fernandez Saldana signs over multiple checks weeks after the murders to Henry Tenen. The first one has the subject line landscaping. Then the second one is keeping up with the roof. And then the third one is Kickstarter. Good luck! Exclamation point, exclamation point. And Stifler kind of humorously said, like, if you see pictures of this house, like, they were not doing landscaping.

[00:43:49] [SPEAKER_01] They were not keeping up with, like, it's garbage. It's dump. And suddenly this guy Tenen, who never has any money, has a lot of money. And, um, basically, yeah. So, now, she noticed some weaknesses here, though. She noted, like, you know, Henry Tenen's not going to come in and say, we were doing this together. He has been charged and he will have his own trial. So will Gardner. They're not going to testify as witnesses. We're not going to hear from them.

[00:44:17] [SPEAKER_01] They're not turning on each other, in other words. Sometimes in a conspiracy case, you have the gunman be like, yeah, that happened to, I think, a certain extent in the Markle, in the murder of Dan Markle. There were people who were involved in the killing who kind of flipped and then got higher up. People, that's not happening as of right now. Um, but, uh, you know, but they also note, like, despite Tenen not being a tenant of this guy's past January of 2022, there's multiple calls and texts between them in February and March.

[00:44:46] [SPEAKER_01] Um, none of those calls or texts still exist on the devices, like, they were deleted. Fernandez Saldana factory reset his whole cell phone after Tenen's arrest. What do you think of that?

[00:45:00] [SPEAKER_03] That sounds pretty extreme and probably not a coincidence. It was probably an attempt to erase evidence of his communications with Mr. Tenen would be my speculation.

[00:45:11] [SPEAKER_01] They're like, you would have lost all your pictures, lost everything. Like, that's not something people would do lightly.

[00:45:16] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. I think, uh, it's consciousness of guilt.

[00:45:19] [SPEAKER_01] And this was after, not after Tenen was arrested on the murder charges, but just arrested for driving charges and having a gun as a felon. Um, so they deleted 6,000 records from Google. And she said something kind of odd and ominous, like, but basically to the jury, like, for the purposes of this trial, Tenen is dead to you. You're not going to hear from him. Um, she said that, uh, you know, they can't say exactly where Fernandez Saldana was during the actual homicide because Tenen was on foot.

[00:45:49] [SPEAKER_01] Um, you know, the blue truck separated. There's definitely two people involved, but they can't quite say that because there's no data during the murder at the crime scene. There's no eyewitnesses showing who exactly is in the truck. But you do have this guy suddenly paying $10,000 for work that didn't happen and a Kickstarter that didn't exist. There's no Kickstarter website set up by this guy.

[00:46:11] [SPEAKER_01] And, um, there was activity on the phone about, um, oh, there was also like that we talked about those practice dry runs that Tenen did where Tenen's phone went to Jared's street of his home where he lived. Um, where, you know, like, so anyway, so she noted that she began the whole thing with reminding them of Jared's life mattered. That's why we're here to talk about that.

[00:46:36] [SPEAKER_01] And that in, I guess in jury selection, she said that Dreiser, the defense attorney talked about the popularity of verdicts. And she says, like, our job is to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. We welcome that. Prosecutors love to say that because it sounds very confident. Yeah, like, yeah, like, you don't think we can do it? Of course we can do it. So, I mean, that, that, that was smart. But basically, like, this isn't a true crime podcast, which, I mean, I guess this is, but the trial isn't. This isn't a TV show. It's real life. He died in a terrible way.

[00:47:06] [SPEAKER_01] And she's like, I'm not saying that to inflame you all. It's just to remind you why we're here. This is very serious. And, um, yeah, you have to look at, say that Fernandez Saldana had intent for Jerry to be killed. He solicited someone to do it. Use the evidence. Use the law. Use common sense. And we're going to, we're confident that you'll return a guilty verdict. All right. So that's the end of what, um, ASA's Christina Stifler said for the opening.

[00:47:33] [SPEAKER_01] All in all, there were some moments that I was kind of like, huh, they might have some problems with their case. Like, with maybe some of the policing or maybe some issues. All in all, though, I thought she did a very good job bringing it together. It's one of those things, like, it's so complicated. And, like, you and I have been in situations where we're trying to explain a case in a nutshell to somebody. It can be a nightmare. Like, if you want to, like, really make us sound insane, like, ask us, like, so what's the evidence in the, like, you know, murder of Scott Macklem or the Delphi murders?

[00:48:01] [SPEAKER_01] And it's like, okay, so there's three people on the trail. Like, I mean, like, can I get some maps in here? Like, you just start, like, it's hard to synthesize so much information into a short time period. And I thought she did a great job with that. And I thought she was compelling. So I thought she did great. Next, we had James Hill, who was one of the defense attorneys. And so he goes and he talks about, you know, Jared Bridegan was murdered. And this is horrible. And we know who did it.

[00:48:31] [SPEAKER_01] It was Henry Tennant. And he was murdered by Tennant. And no one here is going to dispute that. So I thought that was interesting right off the bat. Acknowledging the murder, we know who did it. What do you think about that?

[00:48:43] [SPEAKER_03] I think it's smart. Again, it's something I see a lot of from defense attorneys. You acknowledge as much as you can. So you don't look ridiculous in front of the jury. And it also makes you look confident. Because you're saying, even if we accept that they are right about who killed Mr. Bridegan, that doesn't mean that our client was involved.

[00:49:09] [SPEAKER_01] It's really smart. Because it also takes into account, like, the jury might say, well, yeah, someone should be held accountable. This was awful. We're very angry about it. But, like, let's maybe let him get it in the next trial. You know? I thought that was a really smart thing. That kind of, I thought, you know, I'm going to say this. I thought they did a great job. I thought Hill did a great job for the most part. And I will get into. So he talked about, like, there are three elements. He feels, in his view, the state will only be able to prove two. One.

[00:49:39] [SPEAKER_01] So these are the elements to satisfy first-degree murder. Jared is dead. Two. The death was caused by Mario Fernandez Saldana. Three. And the killing was premeditated. He says, basically, yes to one, yes to three. But you have no evidence of two. And, you know, and he says three would be premeditated by Tenen. One big issue with that for me is why would Tenen kill Jared? What's Tenen's problem with Jared?

[00:50:09] [SPEAKER_01] Now, the defense does not have to explain that. The burden is on the state. It's not on the defense. Nonetheless, I would like to know, why did this guy who is a guy working at a pallet thing, it was all these issues, why does he decide, I want to premeditatedly kill this Mormon father of four who doesn't even live near me and, you know, is just happening to travel through this community that I don't live in this night.

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[00:50:44] [SPEAKER_04] Oh, he misses.

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[00:51:08] [SPEAKER_01] Doesn't really make a lot of sense. So, Hill said that, you know, he noted, like, he would kind of cite Stifler a couple times. Too good a fact, he's like, she's right. There is no witness. There is no text. There is no email. Where Fernandez, Saldana, and Tenen are, like, talking about, we're going to do crimes. There's, um, he talks about the criminal solicitation to felony charge. He notes, like, that has to go through the first charge. Like, you need to have a murder before we can say anyone tried to solicit a murder.

[00:51:36] [SPEAKER_01] And basically cited Dreiser during voir dire, during the jury selection, saying, like, it's like links in a chain where they don't link up and the whole chain falls apart. And, uh, she, he noted that it is terrible. He did emphasize it is a terrible crime and gave credit to Ms. Stifler saying, um, you should leave your human emotions in court, you know, and you can be angry. You can be sympathetic. You can feel sorry for the victim.

[00:52:02] [SPEAKER_01] But you can't let that carry the day to the extent that you're just going to convict somebody because you want to feel like you did something. Like, you have to, you can't just do that. You have to do it with logic and reason and not just emotion. Talked about, he kind of broke down a timeline that that was interesting. Said basically April 10th, 2010, Jared and Gardner are married. April 20th, 2012, the twins are born. The divorce is filed for by Gardner on February 23rd, 2015.

[00:52:32] [SPEAKER_01] And then their marriage's consent to final judgment is July 22nd, 2015. And he, he says that just because, uh, Jared and Gardner and Gardner and Fernandez-Saldana married quickly doesn't, you know, sometimes short care, uh, short courtships and fast marriages doesn't mean they're not valid. That's right. Sometimes marriage is convenient, right? Marriage is convenient for us, Kevin. We get to podcast together.

[00:52:57] [SPEAKER_01] Um, and, uh, talks about how there were a lot of arguments, kind of getting ahead of some of the strife a little bit as much as he can. They're arguing over medical devices for one of the twins' health issues. But they are, like, all in a family group text between the two couples. Thousands of messages, no threats of violence. There might be cheap shots there, here and there. But, um, you know, no one ever called law enforcement. Yeah, but, like, I don't know. He's trying to get ahead of stuff.

[00:53:26] [SPEAKER_01] He's trying to get ahead of stuff. He's being smart. You understand. He's valiantly, I get it.

[00:53:31] [SPEAKER_03] Again, he's trying to give the jurors a prism or a lens to wish to see things.

[00:53:35] [SPEAKER_01] And I think if any of the jurors have ever been divorced, they might be like, yeah, I really was, this guy, my husband was driving me crazy and then we divorced and then, like, yeah, for a while I was annoyed by him. But, like, I think a lot of people also have the experience, like, where you get divorced and, you know, things are chill afterwards and you get along or you're kind of, if you're co-parenting, you're working towards what's best for the child. And that usually means getting along as well as possible.

[00:54:00] [SPEAKER_01] So I think that could, like, be something that maybe makes some people sympathetic, but maybe others might be like, well, just get over it and parent your child. Talked about how they're going to hear from Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Bobby White, who's a cast agent. That is, people who deal with the technology, cell phone data, maps. He's like, there's going to be a lot of maps of arches and graphs. But, you know, nothing that's going to pinpoint anything.

[00:54:28] [SPEAKER_01] Gardner, he says Gardner's mentioned a lot. She's not on trial. Tennant is not on trial. You've got to focus on Fernandez Saldana. What's the evidence about him? He said the state stole his thunder because he wanted to get into bigger staff and how he went to school, you know, how Fernandez Saldana went to school with his kids. But he was doing legitimate work at Potomac Avenue and there's video of that. They had these kind of cameras up on poles showing them do work there.

[00:54:56] [SPEAKER_01] It's not unusual because bigger staff had kind of like a home maintenance, you know, handyman business going. And that's not that big of a deal. And I can understand what he's saying. Although, frankly, when I read the reports on all of those interviews, bigger staff sounded really sketchy. Now we get to the guns. OK. Talks about how there are three models of Glocks that have been produced. Basically, he was talking about like we they know it's a Glock or they think it's a Glock. But like what Glock is it? We can't say it's definitely this Glock.

[00:55:26] [SPEAKER_01] Now, in fairness to the police, they never found the murder weapon. It feels like it would have been very easy to get rid of that thing. But they say that, you know, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives did a firearm trace summary for this bigger staff's missing Glock, which had been purchased, according to these guys, by bear for bear hunting or like for when he's hunting. If a bear attacks you, that's why you have it.

[00:55:54] [SPEAKER_01] And they know the they know like the I guess the registration number and all this different stuff or not registration number, like for the model number. And he mentions that bigger staff was looking up January 25th. Google searches for Glock. But, oh, he didn't search how to modify the firearm or rifling characteristics. It's like, yeah, like you don't get you don't get points for that, in my view. Like when people like why if he was guilty, why wouldn't he flee? Well, he thought he was getting away with it.

[00:56:24] [SPEAKER_01] Like, I don't you know, like that doesn't move me that much. But he also was looking up nine millimeter weapons and Charleston military bases and Windjammer Resort and Average Savage the Average Savage the Band. And, you know. I mean, OK. Handmade flour tortillas. Those don't have anything to do with the crime. Then they talk about how, you know, they're going to we're going to hear from bigger staff. He's going to testify. We're going to hear from his son, Juan Biggerstaff.

[00:56:54] [SPEAKER_01] And said that basically that Juan was allowed to keep four guns. And then. The rest were sent to his one sister and bigger staff daughter, Stephanie Atkinson's house or residence. And they were stored there after bigger staff was, you know, in trouble with the law. But then she was buying a house. And so Juan went to get the guns and got them and said his dad never touched them again. And they were brought to a guy named Fred Barton's house and left in a closet there.

[00:57:25] [SPEAKER_01] And, you know, he made a very big emphasis that Juan is a police officer in Texas. He said Irvington. I've seen Arlington, too. But, you know, I mean, for what it's worth, his father had also been a reserve officer. And look how he turned out. So, I don't know. To me, like, do you think it's a, I mean, like with the police thing, like he almost kind of spoke reverentially. Oh, he's helping a police officer.

[00:57:52] [SPEAKER_01] I was like, okay, there can be good police officers and other types of police officers. I don't really think that means anything either way. They talk about, you know, to me, I, even if Juan and John, bigger staff, get up on the stand and say, I think it's very, it's awfully convenient and very bizarre and suspicious that these guns just happen to go missing.

[00:58:19] [SPEAKER_01] Also, if Juan bigger staff is a police officer, wouldn't he be concerned about like, oh, no, where are these guns that my convict father hoarded? I hope they're not on the street, like being used to do crimes. Wouldn't that be something that would be like a major concern? Like, wouldn't that be of major concern if you were a police officer in particular, that you would want to be keeping track of guns and like you wouldn't want to have just been like,

[00:58:49] [SPEAKER_01] seen as losing a bunch of guns?

[00:58:51] [SPEAKER_03] I think that would be a pretty big concern.

[00:58:55] [SPEAKER_01] We're not gun people. We wouldn't want to deal with guns if we inherited a bunch of guns and then we put them in someone else's house. And then that person was like, I don't know where they are. We'd be like, oh, we'd be very upset. And like, I would just think a law enforcement officer would like not be as lackadaisical. Like, we don't know where the guns are. No big deal. Doesn't mean it was involved in the murder. That to me is very suspicious behavior. So I'll be curious what my reaction to the bigger staffs is. Maybe they'll have a really good story. Maybe they'll have more details and make it make more sense.

[00:59:24] [SPEAKER_01] As of right now, I think they sound suspicious as heck, but they might win me over. I don't know. So they talk about, you know, oh, he's going to the Potomac Avenue address, but he owns it. And I mean, that's a good point. He's just he's just a landlord who's doing a lot. You know, that's fair. I think that's a fair point. Not necessarily as suspicious if you are a hands on landlord. And then talked about how like he was there around that time that they're saying it's suspicious.

[00:59:51] [SPEAKER_01] He was there because one bigger staff, this police officer was getting married and he was coming back to Jacksonville area to get married. And he's bringing Mario is bringing the chairs and the tables in his truck and he's helping a police officer.

[01:00:06] [SPEAKER_03] Just being a nice guy. Get married.

[01:00:10] [SPEAKER_01] And I was like, OK, I mean, they're doing like, you know, the prosecution is going to do some emotional manipulation. So is the defense. It's what it's what the lawyers are doing. You want it. It's not just about reciting the cold, hard facts. You want to tell a story that makes your version seem more plausible, more likable. And that means appealing somewhat to emotions. And if you're saying, look, he's not a bad guy. He's helping the police get married. Then maybe that makes him look more reasonable to the jury.

[01:00:39] [SPEAKER_01] He's not some scary dude. He's just helping out his friend. One thing I liked about Hill was that he did acknowledge a lot about the harm caused by Jared's death. And like the murder destroyed so many lives and that they'll never say otherwise. I thought I thought like the narrow case he was tailoring to get to. You know, reasonable doubt was really good.

[01:01:03] [SPEAKER_01] I mean, like I felt like he did what he had to do to kind of like, hey, let's focus on what's really tying my client to the scene, which is nothing. So I feel like he did a lot with, you know, with what he has, despite some, you know, of the problems and the bad facts facing him. They talked about, you know, we're going to see the blue truck, but you're not going to see Mario Fernandez Saldana. And then he noted that coincidences do happen because in this whole case, one terrible ironic fact that he noted was that Henry Tennant, he identifies him.

[01:01:33] [SPEAKER_01] That's Henry Tennant on the video. He's walking past the police station as like everyone's responding to Jared Bridegan's murder at the same time that Kirsten Bridegan and her mother are pulling up in a car and they're actually caught in the same frame. You see the car pulling in as Tennant is walking away. That's really chilling. And I agree with him. Coincidences do happen. Do a lot of coincidences happen all at once pointing in one way? No.

[01:01:59] [SPEAKER_03] Not usually.

[01:02:00] [SPEAKER_01] Do random coincidences happen, though? Sure. Yes. Talked about, you know, he said the defense asked the police to swab something at their own peril to see if Mario Fernandez Saldana's DNA would be on it. They didn't find any DNA. Well, we'll see what that is. Talked about how we're going to hear from the police and the observations they made and the lack of observations they made.

[01:02:29] [SPEAKER_01] You know, when they went to tell Gardner and Fernandez Saldana about the murder and how Gardner was crying and how, you know, Fernandez Saldana was also there. Talked about a road trip that Fernandez Saldana took about how, you know, he went up to North Carolina to visit a friend. They talked about video games and work and then he left early. That seems to be a different story than what that friend was initially saying, but I could just be confused. That's Jorge Cruz.

[01:02:55] [SPEAKER_01] I thought he originally was like, oh, I didn't know he came here and was like freaking out and really nervous when the police came to the door. Seems odd. And then he says basically like, would you really hire a murderer on credit like that you're going to pay him later? I don't know. I mean. I don't think that's something a lot of people have experience with. Mr. Hill talked about how police only went to one pawn shop to really look for this gun. I was a bit surprised by that, too, in the reports, but I don't know what's what's typical.

[01:03:24] [SPEAKER_01] Talked about how in a journal left in his truck, Tenen mentioned that he did want to start his own business. So that's what they meant by Kickstarter. It doesn't have to be a website. It could just be kickstarting stuff. Wanted to be his own boss. And that Fernandez Saldana is such a great guy for investing in this like small local businessman who unfortunately turned out to be a really bad guy for reasons that we don't understand. Talked about how Fernandez Saldana was so small, like half his body could fit in one of the boots that they discovered that Tenen had. Tenen's a tall guy.

[01:03:54] [SPEAKER_01] That was kind of an odd thing to say. But talked about how when they went to Jimmy Jones's house to search for the truck where they found the truck, he said, yeah, there were probably a lot of high fives that day. But here's one thing they didn't do. Jimmy Jones offered them, consented to them searching the house. But they didn't take that opportunity because they said we don't have a search warrant. But they don't need a search warrant if he has consent because he can revoke that at any time. And he was basically like, what if the gun had been in there? And to me, like, I understand what he's saying. And maybe it wasn't the right move not to search it.

[01:04:23] [SPEAKER_01] But at the same time, like, if Jones is like, hey, guys, you can search my house. Like, are we supposed to believe like he. He did that and Jedi mind tricked them into not searching because the gun was in there and then he got rid of the gun later. Like when I read the stuff with Jimmy Jones, he just seemed like a helpful dude who was like, I want this truck out of my backyard. My friend dumped it here, said he was coming back. Never did. I'm annoyed. Get it out of here. I don't feel like he had any guilty involvement. And maybe it's not the best thing to not search it.

[01:04:53] [SPEAKER_01] But at the same time, like, do I think that like the gun, like that Jimmy had the gun in there concealed? Like, which is it? I mean, what do you think about this? Am I making sense?

[01:05:04] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, you're making sense. I get what you're saying.

[01:05:06] [SPEAKER_01] It just seems like either Jones is in on it and hiding stuff or he's in which case he wouldn't offer to let them search or he's. Not and they missed that. Basically, nothing of value is lost. Is my take. Yeah. So there's a lot of that. There's mistakes in every investigation. You know, anyone who says different is either like I think people have a real black and white view of the police.

[01:05:31] [SPEAKER_01] It's either that they're all powerful and they do everything right and they're great at all times and they're justified in everything they do, which is obviously ridiculous. Or there are bumbling buffoons who can't do anything right. And any small error, any small mistake in an investigation should have it be thrown out and all the police arrested themselves. And that's also kind of stupid. And that's also it's extremely stupid. Both are stupid. It's more like whenever you have a group of people, there's going to be mistakes. Are they a huge deal or not? Do they really matter? And how much do they matter? Are they?

[01:06:01] [SPEAKER_01] That's the that's the test. They talked about a disgusting tenant truck was really emphasized that how there were bugs and rodent feces all over. They didn't even want it in their property room because it was so disgusting. Talked about, you know, that basically they're not going to dispute that Jared was murdered and that he's dead. Like they're not going to basically get basically if we don't question people, it's not because we're lazy. It's not because we're saying that our defend our defendants guilty.

[01:06:29] [SPEAKER_01] We're not going to really do much with the LEO with Lawrence Smith, who is the guy who gave CPR, the sergeant who gave CPR to Jared. We're not going to do a lot with a medical examiner. We're not going to be questioning witnesses who are tending to Jared's daughter. There's a lot here where we're like, yeah, he was murdered. But let's get to the evidence against our client. So basically, like you have to get to the basically like you must presume innocence before you get to guilt. If you have reasonable doubt, your duty is to find him not guilty.

[01:06:57] [SPEAKER_01] If you're convinced, then find him guilty. But we're confident you're not going to find him guilty. And yeah, all in all, I thought these were good openings. I thought they both did a good job with what they needed to do. I'm always impressed with the defense team that can kind of narrowly but compellingly make the case for, hey, there's not the evidence here without resorting to a bunch of nonsense. I find that a lot more compelling.

[01:07:22] [SPEAKER_01] I think there are some pretty big hurdles for this defense team as far as why were their payments made and what's all this communication about. But I don't think it's based on the evidence they have, they might be able to come up with some stuff. I just don't know yet. And at the same time, there may be some problems with the state's case that we'll learn more about, I'm sure, through the defense cross-examinations. And I want to briefly go over some of the witnesses.

[01:07:53] [SPEAKER_01] We don't need to go into super amounts of depth based on how we've already covered this, but we could at least highlight the gist and what was maybe new or what was kind of relevant to the state's case or vice versa here.

[01:08:07] [SPEAKER_03] So who was the first witness?

[01:08:08] [SPEAKER_01] Janelle Cruz. And I'm saying their names now because their names are – I used first names in the series because I wasn't sure, like, who was going to be used or not. But now that they're on court TV, I figured, you know, it's fine. So Janelle Cruz was –

[01:08:21] [SPEAKER_03] And to be clear, obviously, she was the first witness for the prosecution because, of course, the prosecution always presents its case first.

[01:08:29] [SPEAKER_01] Yes. She's a woman who was at the time in Jacksonville. Now they've – this couple has since moved to Kansas City, Kansas. And they were – she and Shane were – her boyfriend – she describes him as her husband, too, but her boyfriend, Shane Borja, was – they were living on the south side of Jacksonville. They didn't live in Jacksonville Beach. They were visiting there because basically Shane had to return a bike to his friend. Shane went on the motorbike.

[01:08:57] [SPEAKER_01] Janelle drove her car, drop it off at the friend's house. Then they head back home. And they – Shane's kind of directing her, okay, go this way, go that way. And they're in the darkness of this neighborhood. And then she has to stop because the whole road is blocked with this vehicle. So Shane gets out of the vehicle and is, like, looking after – he thinks – like, they initially think, oh, there was some kind of, like, minor accident or maybe this guy's tire went flat and he's stuck.

[01:09:27] [SPEAKER_01] And she kind of got emotional recalling some of this with, like, you know, Shane comes back and, like, there's a little girl that he has. And he's, like, you need to call 911. Gives her the little girl. You hear some of the 911 call. And she's trying to sue the little girl who's, like, kind of gasping from having been crying for so long and panting. And the little girl keeps asking her about her dad. Tells her her dad is hurt on the ground. Asking if the police would come help her dad.

[01:09:55] [SPEAKER_01] And you could see the family – I presume family and supporters of the Bridegans were behind the prosecution table. And they're, like, getting emotional at hearing this. And Janelle also, like, shoots a video on her phone of the little girl. And they asked her why she did that. She said she thought she was really cute and wanted to remember her. She is really cute. I mean, she got that right.

[01:10:19] [SPEAKER_01] She was a very cute two-year-old who's kind of very articulate and talking about it and, like, talking about how old she is and saying her name. And, you know, and that was it, basically. And she basically reached out afterwards to Kirsten Bridegans, the little girl's mom, just to say, I'm sorry for your loss. But other than that, the defense didn't cross her because there's really nothing up for dispute.

[01:10:44] [SPEAKER_01] In a stupid conspiracy case, they would, I'm sure, be tearing this woman apart and acting like she was the real murderer. But in this case, they're being responsible and they're just saying, yeah, you know. And Shane came out and said a lot of the similar things. He's a semi-truck driver. He saw more of the crime scene. He got out. He kind of thought things were weird because he's calling to this guy. He thinks he's having trouble changing a tire. But then he notices blood.

[01:11:10] [SPEAKER_01] He notices all of this and sees this little girl, grabs her, kind of gets a bad feeling, just kind of runs out. And no defense cross-examination for him either. The next one is our first law enforcement officer and the first one at the scene that night, and that is Sergeant Lawrence Smith. And he's, perhaps if you guys remember the early episodes of our miniseries, he is the officer who attempted, first attempted to save Jared's life with CPR.

[01:11:39] [SPEAKER_01] And instead of being directly examined by Christina Stifler, he's actually, his direct examination is handled by ASA Alan Misrahi. I'm sorry if I'm saying his name wrong. But he talked about how he'd been with JP, the Jacksonville Beach Police Department for 19 years. And he became a sergeant by first becoming a corporal. You've got to prove yourself, you know, supervise, like, you know, make it clear that you're ready for leadership. Before that, he graduated the police academy.

[01:12:09] [SPEAKER_01] He has a lot of experience being a crime scene investigator, which they used to call evidence technicians. And he was able to remain a CSI as a corporal and then in 2014 was promoted to sergeant. Now he oversees a lot of the evidence technicians. And he talked about how they're not the same thing as the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. They're a separate thing. They work closely together. But J.S.O., J.S., J.B.P.D. is much smaller.

[01:12:38] [SPEAKER_01] 71 sworn officers covering about a five square mile area. All part of Duval County. And he talked about how they were all like most of their squad was responding to a domestic dispute. And suddenly they start getting a bunch of dispatch calls to go somewhere in South Jacksonville Beach. Bunch of 9011 calls were coming in. People were hearing gunshots. They weren't really sure where it was. So they're sent to the general area. He happened to be the first one on the scene.

[01:13:07] [SPEAKER_01] He first assesses the scene for safety. Like obviously if he goes in and gets shot, that's not, you know, that's not good for many reasons. So like you have to be like, is there someone else armed here? Is there something going on? But you're having to deal with this very quickly because like, you know, if you assume everything's all right and it's not, you could be harmed. And if you hide in your car because you, you know, like you have to make some like gut decisions at some point.

[01:13:31] [SPEAKER_01] He said he had to drive on the grass with one tire on the grass to get around people to get to the car even because there were like 200 feet of cars backed up behind Jared.

[01:13:42] [SPEAKER_05] He shoots. He scores!

[01:13:47] [SPEAKER_04] Oh, he misses.

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[01:14:12] [SPEAKER_01] He notices the pool of blood. He says that his weird gut instinct was that Jared may have died by suicide. He wasn't sure why he thought that. He just like, he just was like, that's a really weird place to kill yourself, basically. He was lying face down with one cheek on the road. And he doesn't, he feels for a pulse, doesn't feel one, rolls him over, starts CPR. And his partner, Harold Corey, comes over, says, hey, there's a child in the car.

[01:14:42] [SPEAKER_01] Corey takes over. Officer Corey takes over CPR. Sergeant Smith goes back and the child's out of the car, but she was taken away at that point. Right. He's seeing the phone and wallet still in the car. He's, he's, you know, he sees on the infotainment system, the name Kirsten keeps popping up. And that's, of course, Jared Bredigan's wife and just calling again and again and again. And he at first said he read it as his wife's name because his wife has a similar name. So he, he felt, he felt really bad about it. It was emotional.

[01:15:12] [SPEAKER_01] The other thing he said he remembered was seeing Jared's wedding ring because his hand at one point was like not covered by the sheet put over it by the Jack, by the fire squad rescue team. Sees the thing's been shot up. It talks about how dark it was, how they had to use flashlights to kind of be able to see stuff. At one point, CORE TV seemingly accidentally showed a picture briefly of, that showed the bloody sheet over Jared's body alongside the car or the vehicle.

[01:15:42] [SPEAKER_01] That was unfortunate. I imagine that was a mistake. And he noted that he was not the lead detective of the case simply, you know, just first on the scene and in a supervisor capacity. The defense briefly crossed him, you know, talked about how like, yeah, it's dark in that area, but it's not dark nearby. And it's like, yeah, I mean, it wasn't anything really confrontational or, or big. The final witness, the penultimate witness today was Kirsten Bredigan. That is the widow of Jared Bridegan.

[01:16:11] [SPEAKER_01] It was so sad to, like, you could tell this is just, it, I just, my heart goes out to her. She gets up there. They ask her, like, you're the widow of Jared Bredigan. She immediately gets emotional and kind of starts crying. It's so sad. She talked about how she was born in California, raised in Seattle, Washington, or at least nearby that. Met Jared while she was living in Charlotte, North Carolina on a dating app about 2017. He drove seven hours to meet her on their first date. They spent the whole day together. They did long distance. She knew he had kids.

[01:16:41] [SPEAKER_01] Eventually she married and moved down to be with him. They have two daughters who are now seven and five. It's been that long since his murder. That's just so sad to me that they didn't get to grow up with their dad. Like, the kids in this case just break my heart. She identified Fernanda Saldana, talked about how they all did not get along, how everything was a big fight with them.

[01:17:07] [SPEAKER_01] And she explained, we've talked a lot about how Jared was often criticized by Gardner for not talking to her directly. She explained that that was because they could not trust anything Gardner and Fernanda Saldana would do or say. So they wanted everything in writing. They wanted all conversations in writing so that nobody would be able to go back later. So that was made to make Jared out to sound really cold or awful. But what she's saying is, like, this is a protective measure because we're dealing with people we cannot trust.

[01:17:33] [SPEAKER_01] She recalled that she thought it seemed oddly calm before the murder, that they almost were shocked that Gardner wasn't fighting the baptism of one of Jared's twins more, who was becoming interested in becoming, you know, getting into the Mormon faith more and getting baptized. And she would say, like, the kids, though, would sometimes come home and say, like, negative things about them or, like, there would just be this kind of, like, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

[01:18:00] [SPEAKER_01] At one point, there was contentiousness because Gardner wanted the kids to have overnights with Fernanda Saldana without her presence. And Jared and her did not feel comfortable with that. So they fought that. And how they talked about the routine of the daddy date night and, you know, talked about how that day she had stopped going to the date nights she previously went, but she had a really small baby at home. And how her parents were over that night watching a show with her.

[01:18:28] [SPEAKER_01] She's getting texts from the girl twin and talks to Jared at some point in a brief phone call. The time gets past where he's usually home. He's not there. She's not that worried. More time passes. She's getting increasingly frantic, calling, texting, not hearing anything. Starts looking up, like, were there accidents in the area? She and her mom drive to Jacksonville Beach, leaving her dad with the baby. And at some point, she gets someone to answer the phone, and it's not Jared. It's a police officer. Again, like, what a nightmare.

[01:18:58] [SPEAKER_01] Like, that is just the worst nightmare for anybody. She's told, drive to Jacksonville Beach Police Department. They won't tell her anything. She's very frustrated by this, like, what happened to my husband? They give her her daughter, but they're not telling her eventually. She's told that he is dead and that it is looking like a homicide. And she offers up her thoughts immediately, saying the only people who had a problem with him are Shannon Gardner and Mario Fernandez Saldana.

[01:19:27] [SPEAKER_01] He doesn't, he loves his family. He's not super close with a lot of people. He's not a risky guy. He doesn't have any issues, no substance abuse, no gambling. He's not doing a lot. He gets along with all of our neighbors. And, you know, and then she talks about trying to help the investigation. She is shown a picture of Henry Tennant, starts crying again, said she never heard of him before the arrest, never knew him. Um, there's a brief cross-examination with the defense.

[01:19:55] [SPEAKER_01] A lot of discussion about, like, well, when did the really divorce proceedings end and all this? And, like, you know, almost trying to be like nothing was going on lately that would have prompted this. I think that was kind of the gist of it. But she talked, the defense, this was kind of a little bit of a fiery moment. Not too fiery, but a little bit. I'd be curious about what you think about this.

[01:20:17] [SPEAKER_01] But at one point the defense asked her, well, Shannon Gardner let you come in the next day and be there when she told the twins that their father was dead, right? And then she kind of, not in a fiery way, but kind of, like, sharply, not sharp even, but just kind of, like, very, like, you know she was waiting for this. And it was, like, a very sharp observation. She says basically, like, no, she didn't ask me to do it. Like, I told her I wanted to do it and she let me.

[01:20:43] [SPEAKER_03] Because she wanted someone who loved Jared and the kids to be there.

[01:20:47] [SPEAKER_01] I was like, ooh.

[01:20:49] [SPEAKER_03] The obvious implication is she doesn't believe that description applies to Ms. Gardner.

[01:20:54] [SPEAKER_01] I thought that was very savvy of her. And that was a very, like, I'm sure the defense did not like that.

[01:21:01] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, it was an interesting moment.

[01:21:05] [SPEAKER_01] And the defense is like, yeah, but you didn't, like, you know, you know, they let you do that, right? And she's like, yeah. And then they're like, and there was no violence until the murder. Last witness of the day was the medical examiner, the assistant medical examiner. This is Peter Gillespie. He's a medical doctor and an associate medical examiner for Jacksonville. He's been in different medical examiner roles for 25 years. And it's his job to come up with the cause and manner of death.

[01:21:35] [SPEAKER_01] The cause of death is like the proximate injury or disease that literally causes the death. Manner is a classification. Homicide is a manner of death. Somebody else killed this person. Suicide, they killed themselves. Homicide is a man. Accident, you know, there's different types of it. But that's a broader classification. And he talked about, like, I'm in an independent agency. I don't work for anybody. He talked about his education. Has been doing this since 2001.

[01:22:04] [SPEAKER_01] Talked about just how did Jared die? Well, multiple gunshot wounds. They reviewed autopsy pictures, but we weren't able to see those, thank goodness. Um, but there he's talking about wires on Jared's chest from the defibrillator, DNA, um, plastic bags on his hand for the DNA. Very, you know, very troubling details, I'm sure, for the jurors who had a look at this stuff.

[01:22:28] [SPEAKER_01] He talked about how the, he talked, I mean, it's horrible, but he really went into detail about how, what the bullets did to this man's body. And that just, it drew of it home for me of, like, the fear he must have felt and the confusion. How one bullet went into his, um, body, hit his clavicle, one of his clavicles fractured it. The bullet fragments within his body, gets into the muscle of his neck.

[01:22:57] [SPEAKER_01] The other goes into his carotid artery and jugular vein and kind of lodges where his vocal cords are and breaks his other, uh, clavicular, um, and exits his upper right arm. Like, just horrible, like, the destruction caused by this. And that he said that, you know, with the blood loss, you might be conscious for about 15 to 20 seconds. It's hard to say. Without immediate intervention, it's fatal. Obviously, they were not able to get to him in time.

[01:23:26] [SPEAKER_01] Um, and was anything else found in his body to indicate, like, you know, did he overdose on drugs and then happened to just get shot? No, he had a little bit of caffeine in there. Nothing, nothing related. And, you know, the one thing that with Lawrence, with Sergeant Lawrence, what he said was like, yeah, for a minute I thought suicide, but then I'm looking at all these shells on the ground. You're not going to shoot yourself multiple times in most cases. And there's no gun.

[01:23:53] [SPEAKER_01] If there's a firearm at the scene that somebody's holding, then that might, you know, be an indication that they did it to themselves. They don't have that. And, you know, Dr. Gillespie also said the same thing. So that was day one. We got some interesting witnesses. Any thoughts on anything I've said today, Kevin?

[01:24:07] [SPEAKER_03] I always like it when there's good lawyering on both sides. And it sounds like this is going to be a case where we're going to have good lawyers on both sides, both of whom, all of whom rather, present the strongest possible version of their case and their argument. And when you have that, I always feel a lot more confident in the final verdict being something that we could all live with.

[01:24:32] [SPEAKER_01] I fully concur. Now, some housekeeping of our own. So we're doing this episode. We have a lot of, you know, family stuff going on. So I we may not be like able to do a lot of episodes for the next couple of days, but we'll be we'll be returning with a vengeance next week and we'll catch up on whatever we missed. I figured this is something these are you know, this is a marathon, not a sprint. Sprint is going to be multiple trials.

[01:25:00] [SPEAKER_01] So I'm just warning everybody, you know, family stuff comes up and you got to do that. And, you know, that might that might mean some, you know, not a lot of coverage this week, if any if anything else. But if we don't get to it again this week, we will be back next week to discuss all we've missed and other big highlights. I just want to kind of set expectations with that a bit. So, yeah, I hope you stick with us as we cover this case. I think it's going to be a very interesting one. It's going to be an interesting trial.

[01:25:29] [SPEAKER_01] And I'll be I'll be curious to see what everyone thinks. But thank you so much for listening.

[01:25:34] [SPEAKER_03] Thank you. Thanks so much for listening to the Murder Sheet. If you have a tip concerning one of the cases we cover, please email us at murdersheet at gmail dot com. If you have actionable information about an unsolved crime, please report it to the appropriate authorities.

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[01:26:18] [SPEAKER_03] Special thanks to Kevin Tyler Greenlee, who composed the music for the Murder Sheet, and who you can find on the web at kevintg dot com.

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