Murder trial of Jacksonville, Florida’s Mario Fernandez Saldana starts

Mario Enrique Fernandez Saldana is a United States Army veteran from Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, USA. He is the second husband of Shanna Gardner Fernandez, who was married to Jared Galen Bridegan from 2010 to 2015.

Bridegan and Shanna have twin children born in 2012. He married Kirsten Bridegan in 2017 and she gave birth to their daughter in 2020.

After Jared and Shanna’s divorce, they shared custody of their twin children. He and Kirsten lived in St. Augustine, St. Johns County, Florida while Mario and Shanna lived in Jacksonville Beach, Duval County.

BIOGRAPHY

On April 4, 2026, Mario turned 38. Here are 10 more things about him:

1. He attended Sandalwood High School in Jacksonville.
2. As an adult, he joined the U.S. Army and eventually became a drill sergeant.
3. He met Shanna while working as a maintenance worker at her CrossFit gym.
4. He and Shanna were listed together as owners of First Choice Home Rentals LLC, which received incoming transfers from the trust that was funded by her parents.
5. In 2018, he was accused of sexual assault in the U.S. Army.
6. After he married Shanna in 2018, her parents made him the trustee of her irrevocable trust, which gave him administrative and financial control of the trust including a clause that she could only become trustee of the fund when she had “no further legal entanglements” with her Jared.
7. In 2022, he and Shanna allegedly paid his then tenant and handyman Henry Arthur Tenon, then 61, to kill Jared.
8. After Jared’s death in 2022, he moved to Orlando, Florida while Shanna and her twin children moved to West Richland, Washington, USA.
9. In 2023, he was arrested.
10. In 2026, he became the first of three defendants to stand trial for Jared’s murder.

TIMELINE

Mario is 5’4″ tall. Tenon worked as a handyman for several of his rental properties in Jacksonville and had lived on property in Jacksonville that he owned until October 2022.

2010s

• In January 2018, he faced an allegation of sexual assault from a recruit under his charge in the U.S. Army and while the charges were dropped, he was given a less-than-honorable discharge.
• In April 2018, he married Shanna.

2020s

• Between January 5, 2022 and August 18, 2022, he allegedly committed second-degree murder with a weapon, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, solicitation to commit a capital felony and child abuse. 
• Between February 1, 2022 and February 28, 2022, he and Tenon had 35 phone contacts while allegedly planning Jared’s murder and on February 16, 2022, Tenon allegedly fatally shot Jared in front of Jared’s daughter, then 2, in Jacksonville Beach.
• In March 2022, he and Tenon had 30 phone contacts.
• Between May 2022 and June 2022, he and Tenon had five to nine phone contacts.
• Tenon deposited three handwritten checks from him as shown by Tenon’s financial records from Tenon’s bank on October 14, 2022.
• By January 2023, he and Shanna publicly claimed to still be living together as a couple, but investigators said surveillance revealed they were separated, he was living in Orlando and she was living in Washington with her twin children.
• At around 9:30 a.m. on March 16, 2023, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents arrested him in Orlando. He was booked into the Orange County Jail in Orlando. On the same day, Tenon pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with a weapon and agreed to testify against him.
• On March 23, 2023, he made his first court appearance in Duval County. Represented by Jesse Dreicer, he was ordered held without bail.
• On April 4, 2023, he pleaded not guilty to charges related to Jared’s murder.
• On May 3, 2023, prosecutors declared they are seeking the death penalty against him.
• On February 13, 2026, Tenon submitted a three-page motion to withdraw his plea, which offered little explanation beyond his refusal to testify against him and Shanna.
• Tenon will not testify in his murder trial from August 17-28, 2026.
• When his murder trial started on August 17, 2026, Kristen testified about her relationship with Jared, Jared’s co-parenting relationship with Shanna and the moments leading up to Jared’s murder.