By Associated Press
Publication Date: 2026-08-17 04:08:00
By ED WHITE
The fatal shooting of a Microsoft design manager on a dark Florida road was a “targeted ambush” hatched by his ex-wife and her husband, following years of post-marriage strife over religion and how to raise twin children, a prosecutor told jurors Monday.
Jared Bridegan, 33, was killed in Jacksonville Beach in 2022 when he got out of his vehicle to remove a tire that was placed in the road while his 2-year-old daughter was strapped in her car seat.
More than four years later, Mario Fernandez Saldana, 38, is on trial in Duval County court for first-degree murder and solicitation of murder. He’s accused of arranging Bridegan’s death by hiring a gunman. Shanna Gardner, 39, faces her own trial in September.
“The killer was a stranger to Jared Bridegan. The murder was personal,” Assistant State Attorney Christina Simak Stifler said.
Defense attorney James Hill told the jury that Fernandez Saldana had no motive or desire to get rid of Bridegan.
In her opening…
