The Murder of Jared Bridegan: The Trial of Mario Fernandez-Saldana: Catching Up

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_02] Well, they literally just found him guilty. So, uh, spoiler alert, but I hope you enjoy this recap of the trial anyways, because now we can learn why this jury of Mario Fernandez-Saldana's peers found him guilty on all counts of murder.

[00:00:20] [SPEAKER_02] Sorry to get this to you a little late. The news just broke, and Kevin and I both got a little bit sick, so we're slower. And if we sound weird, that's why. I mean, weird in terms of our voices, not weird in terms of our personalities. That's unfortunately just kind of baked in at this point. But yeah, um, this episode is a little bit outdated, but I think at least it can give you a sense of some of the high points of trial. And I appreciate you listening. Bye!

[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_02] I'm Anya, and today we're going to do a trial recap on the case of Mario Fernandez-Saldana, who is, of course, accused and charged with conspiring to murder his wife, Shanna Gardner's ex-husband, Jared Bridegan. This episode contains discussion of murder and violence. All right, so we're back. And we're back just in time to recap the trial of Mario Fernandez-Saldana.

[00:01:14] [SPEAKER_02] So right now, the jury is headed into deliberations. The state of Florida, which of course was prosecuting Fernandez-Saldana, rested its case on Monday, August 24th. The defense took over Tuesday, August 25th, but they called only two witnesses. It was a very short case. They were mostly relying on, I think, you know, cross-examinations and whatnot to make their case.

[00:01:40] [SPEAKER_02] And jury deliberations have begun today, Wednesday, August 26th. Now jurors will decide the fate of Fernandez-Saldana. He could face mandatory life without parole if convicted of this murder conspiracy charge. And if not, he could walk. So what's going to happen? What happened to trial? This trial sure went fast, and we want to know what exactly we missed. So we dug into it, and we're going to talk about it now. My name is Anya Kane. I'm a journalist.

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_01] 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.

[00:02:22] [SPEAKER_02] And this is The Murder of Jared Bridegan. The trial of Mario Fernandez-Saldana. Catching up.

[00:03:14] [SPEAKER_02] So I think maybe a good place to start, Kevin, might be to go through all the various witnesses who we didn't see. I mean, we've since gone back and watched at least significant chunks of this.

[00:03:27] [SPEAKER_01] That sounds like a terrific plan.

[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_02] I feel like the witnesses give you a sense of the trajectory of the case and what information was presented. After we do that, we're going to go through and maybe talk about some of the prongs of the state's case as far as I see it. And then we're going to go through and talk about some of the defense points and counterattacks and how they've been, you know, responding to some of that. And then we'll talk a little bit about closing arguments. We're not going to spend too, too much time on anything, any one thing.

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_02] We're going to try to get you the big highlights so that we can all be knowledgeable about where things stand going into these deliberations and how things might turn out. And one thing I would love to get our listeners takes on would be, you know, go to our murder sheet Facebook discussion group and tell us there. What do you think? Or if you see, you know, if we were going to put out TikToks and stuff on this and social media reels on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, I'd love to get your comments. What do you think about this case?

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_02] How do you think it went for the state and the defense and for Fernandez Saldana? Do you think he's factually guilty? Are you undecided? Do you think he might be factually innocent? And as a separate question from that, because, you know, there's that. But do you think he's going to be convicted or not? Do you think it's going to be a hung jury, an acquittal? What do you think is going to go down? Do you think they're going to convict him on one charge and not the other?

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_01] A lot of different possibilities.

[00:04:52] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, I'd love to know. And again, we have to remember, sometimes you can be guilty as charged, but get away with it because there's not enough evidence or, you know, there's problems with the investigation. So I would love to get all your thoughts on it because I, having followed this case for a while, I have my own thoughts, but I'm kind of in the weeds. So anyways, let's get to it. So we saw Kirsten Bridegan. That is the widow of Jared Bridegan, the murder victim here.

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_02] She, she was a witness on the first day, which we covered. But she also had a second appearance as a witness. And that can happen in these cases. You know, someone might be called back to the stand for various reasons. And she was called back largely to testify that she did not recognize the person walking past the police station on the night where she was pulling up to the police station on the night of her husband's murder. And why is that significant?

[00:05:48] [SPEAKER_02] Well, the man police say was walking past the police station at that point was Henry Tennant. Henry Tennant is who the state believes was the gunman who killed Jared Bridegan in a nighttime ambush on February 16th, 2022. It's significant that Kirsten is able to say, I don't know this man. I have no connection to him. My family has no connection to him.

[00:06:15] [SPEAKER_02] Because Tennant is connected to the defendant here, Fernandez Saldana. Interestingly, the defense concedes that Henry Tennant is the shooter. Fernandez Saldana's case does not rely on like exonerating Tennant. And they're saying, no, he shot him. We don't know why. Now, what the state is saying is not so fast. We know why. This guy was your broke tenant for years. You had a personal connection with him through that.

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_02] And you paid him $10,000 shortly after the murders. So you paid him to kill Jared. So that's what the state is saying. The defense is saying, listen, you know, that's not enough evidence. So Kirsten saying, I don't know this guy is important because that gets into the jury's heads of like, why would Henry Tennant do this? You know, doesn't really make a lot of sense. Okay.

[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_02] Another witness who was very important, and we heard this man's name throughout our coverage of the investigation. This is, of course, Detective Christopher Lee Johns. Detective Johns is with the Jacksonville Beach Police Department. It's not the same thing as the, you know, Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. This is a, you know, a community that's a bit smaller. It's not, you know, it's part of the Duval County area, but it's a separate municipal entity.

[00:07:41] [SPEAKER_02] And he was the lead investigator. He testified twice. And initially it was focusing most on the evidence on the case. And then later on, on the Fernandez-Saldana financials. The financials, as we will talk about, are a linchpin in this case. Because they can kind of tell you if, the state is trying to rely on them in order to basically say like, Tenant had no reason to do this, but look, he was paid off. And look at all this money moving around.

[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_02] Like, they're using that to paint a picture. And one thing that Detective Johns was doing was, I think he definitely got into some back and forth, let's just say, with Jesse Dreiser, who is, of course, the attorney for Mario Fernandez-Saldana.

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_02] And, you know, Dreiser, I feel like, has handled this with, you know, like he's definitely, you know, aggressive in his pursuit of trying to defend his client. And he wants, you know, the police to note, hey, what do we not have? We don't have any DNA evidence linking Fernandez-Saldana to the crime. We don't have the firearm that was used to murder Jared Bridegan.

[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_02] We don't have any surveillance putting Mario Fernandez-Saldana at the scene. There's nothing really tying him to this in terms of those direct pieces of evidence. And I think, you know, for me, I think that's a very good point for Dreiser to be making. I think for me personally, and Kevin, I'd be curious what you think with this, I don't have the sort of CSI effect brain that maybe I would have years ago.

[00:09:22] [SPEAKER_02] Because when I look at cases, I see like there's always a lot of stuff that could have existed or could have been helpful to police that they're not able to get. Or that just doesn't exist in this case.

[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_00] Exactly. I think you said that very well.

[00:09:38] [SPEAKER_02] To me, like, you know, it's like when people, oh, where's the DNA? Well, if there's no real DNA tying anyone to anything, then that doesn't mean a crime wasn't committed. But that being said, when we're talking about a murder conspiracy, this stuff is important because tying the people who hired Tennant to do this to the crime is the name of the game. So it is important and notable for Dreiser to be saying, like, this isn't enough. And, you know, Johns is, you know, Detective Johns is saying, you know, yeah, that we don't have that.

[00:10:10] [SPEAKER_02] But, you know, and I think Dreiser is trying to also highlight, oh, this wasn't a very good investigation. Like, they missed stuff. I don't know if I agree with that, honestly. I think it was pretty solid. I think they ran into some roadblocks for sure, but I don't know. It didn't really seem to be like an error-riddled investigation.

[00:10:29] [SPEAKER_01] Well, of course, defense attorneys always try to say. It's his job to do that. That the investigators miss things. That's something you hear time and time again. And the thing is, no investigation is perfect. So there's always things for defense attorneys to pick at.

[00:10:42] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, and as they should. It's their jobs to pick at them. It's definitely, I don't begrudge him that. You know, so, I mean, I just am saying in my personal perspective, like, we can talk about some of the mistakes that were made or some of the issues that they ran into. But a lot of it, I don't know. It just doesn't, it seems like kind of like, I don't know how much that would have moved the needle.

[00:11:09] [SPEAKER_02] So Detective Johns also testified about the finances I mentioned. There were three checks written from Fernandez Saldana to Tenen in the months after the murders. And $10,000 in total. And, you know, there were, you know, like, they kind of broken up. And for, like, basically, like, for landscaping, for your Kickstarter. And what the state has been saying is, like, that's nonsense.

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_02] This is not, you know, these were not real things. This was surreptitiously to pay Tenen for the murder. And also talking about, and we'll get more into this, but also talking about access to, Shanna Gardner is the daughter of wealthy Shelley and Sterling Gardner. And those folks are the owners of Stampin' Up, a large and lucrative,

[00:12:05] [SPEAKER_02] well, I should say lucrative for the people at the top who got in early. MLMs are scams, guys. Just don't do them, okay? I'm looking out for all of you. Multi-level marketing schemes, don't get involved, okay? It's a legal pyramid scheme. But, yeah, Stampin' Up is the paper crafts version of that. And they, you know, have a lot of money from that. And basically they set up their daughter, Shanna, with a trust.

[00:12:31] [SPEAKER_02] But Gardner cannot access that money herself at this time in 2022 until she's done with all legal entanglements with Jared Bright again, her ex-husband. They don't want him getting that money. So who has the access to the money? Fernandez Saldana. He's the agent of this trust. He's, you know, the trustee. And basically what they're saying with that is like, you know, she couldn't have done this alone in terms of moving money to make this scheme happen.

[00:13:02] [SPEAKER_02] Okay. So where do we go from there? So when we're looking at this, when we're looking at additional experts, Detective David Ostertag of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office has won. He testified to Fernandez Saldana's factory reset of his phone, which occurred before it was collected, meaning it no longer had any location data.

[00:13:33] [SPEAKER_02] Obviously a highly suspicious move. Have you ever factory resetted your phone, Kevin?

[00:13:39] [SPEAKER_01] Yes.

[00:13:40] [SPEAKER_02] Why? Because you were trying to get away with murder?

[00:13:42] [SPEAKER_01] No, I was having some pretty severe technical problems with my phone. And the guy at the store said, I want to try a factory reset. How about you? Have you ever done it?

[00:13:52] [SPEAKER_02] I don't think so. Did you lose all your stuff or were you able to back it up beforehand?

[00:13:56] [SPEAKER_01] I backed it up beforehand. Okay.

[00:13:57] [SPEAKER_02] So you weren't, you know, you weren't just doing it randomly. I think when you look at people's lives, modern day people, many of our lives are on our phones. That's where our contacts are. That's where, you know, social media is. That's where a lot of photographs and texts to loved ones, right? Things that you might be sentimental about. And the fact that this guy just nukes all that right before, you know, I don't know. That's pretty weird.

[00:14:28] [SPEAKER_02] I find that very odd because to me it would have to be really important to lose all of that stuff that you might be sentimental about. You know, I can understand people like deleting texts or like, oh no, I don't want anyone to see my like inappropriate pictures. You know, not that I would know anything about that, obviously.

[00:14:44] [SPEAKER_01] Well, I would. And all about your inappropriate pictures.

[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_02] No, don't erase that from everyone's minds. I'm a gentle woman. Okay. This message is sponsored by Greenlight.

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[00:19:35] [SPEAKER_02] The only fans level. No, that's something nobody wants. And yeah, it's like, but you know, I just, that's remarkable to me. It's also kind of unfortunate because it's like, man, if they'd gotten that phone quicker, I don't know. Could they have gotten it quicker? I don't know. You have the FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, Special Agent Bobby Blythe.

[00:20:02] [SPEAKER_02] He is somebody who is an expert in, you know, the digital side of things, the digital forensics. And he was able to show Fernandez Saldana's phone near, you know, near his home before and after the murder. Okay. So that's, I mean, that actually kind of backs up what Fernandez Saldana is saying. But here's the problem. He also found a data gap. When is the data gap?

[00:20:31] [SPEAKER_02] That's from 710 to 820 p.m. Okay. I mean, approximately there, thereabouts. That's exactly the window in which the murder took place. So why is his phone have a data gap at that point? It seems awfully suspicious. And here's the thing.

[00:20:54] [SPEAKER_02] What the, what I guess, you know, what the state thinks happened is that Henry Tennant, you know, he's going around in this truck. He cuts Jared off with this tire, then ambushes him and shoots him and kills him with a 10 millimeter gun. And then Henry Tennant takes off on foot. But the truck keeps rolling. Who's in the truck? Someone else has to be involved in this.

[00:21:21] [SPEAKER_02] You know, if Fernandez Saldana is a guy who's not involved at all in terms of the actual killing getaway car thing, you would think that his phone would, you'd think, you know, he'd be on his phone at that point. Why is there a data gap? If they don't really know where he is and he's not accounted for. And we know from the interviews with the twins that, you know, he says he saw them right when they came back, but they said they didn't see him. You know, he was, they assumed he was in the TV room or something because they heard, you know, heard the TV on, but they didn't see him.

[00:21:51] [SPEAKER_02] So suddenly you've got a missing stepfather and that, you know, kind of adds to the idea that maybe he was the one driving the truck afterwards. You have a alcohol tobacco, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Special Agent Kenneth Stengel.

[00:22:08] [SPEAKER_02] This was the ATF agent who actually found the Ford F-150, this blue truck that they were trying so hard to find after the murder that they saw going on. All these surveillance footage, they eventually traced it back to Henry Tennant and they were able to, you know, he told them, oh, you know, I got rid of the truck. And then they found it in the home, in the yard of the home of Jimmy Jones, who was Tennant's longtime family friend.

[00:22:39] [SPEAKER_02] And this was through some, you know, different data. So he, you know, this was obviously a major break in the case. Now, Dreiser cross-examined him and kind of got him to say that they did not search Jones's home or property for the gun. My understanding now through this trial is that detectives believe that the gun was destroyed shortly after the murders. So I don't think that would have mattered. That's a mistake that I think, yeah, maybe they should have done that. It sounds like Jones gave them permission and they didn't take him up on that.

[00:23:10] [SPEAKER_02] Now, here's my thinking, though. Like Jimmy Jones, when I read the investigative reports, he's like a guy who's like, hey, Henry Tennant, you're my friend. Sure, you can keep your junkie truck in my yard temporarily. And then Tennant like ditches him and won't call him back. And he's like, get this truck out of my yard. Like, that's how I would be. Like, I relate to that. And when the police come, he's like, if you guys want to take the truck, great. Thank you. Like, I don't feel like he has anything to hide. I don't think.

[00:23:38] [SPEAKER_02] And also, it seems like antithetical that like if he was going, if he was hiding the gun for Tennant, why would he offer them the ability to search his home? Like, I don't think anything of value was lost there. And I don't think Jimmy Jones is involved. That's just my take. I think he's just a guy who got, you know, put in a bad situation by his friend. That's fair. Again, like, I mean, should they have searched it? I don't know. Maybe. But like, I guess I'm just saying like sometimes like if something's like, oh, man, we really missed that opportunity.

[00:24:08] [SPEAKER_02] That's a bigger deal to me than like, well, OK. OK. So you have another folk person from the ATF, the Glenn Farig, who is a forensic biologist, talked about DNA. Alan Misrahy, who's one of the assistant state's attorneys, did the direct examination.

[00:24:31] [SPEAKER_02] And they were able to testify that the DNA from Tennant was found on the tire used to stop Bridegan's vehicle. No DNA from Fernandez Saldana was found. Former ATF intelligence specialist Lindsay Butler testified and kind of was able to document the frequent calls and messages between Fernandez Saldana and Tennant.

[00:24:57] [SPEAKER_02] 27-minute call on March 10th, which was the day after police released images of the blue truck to the public. I mean, what do you think about that?

[00:25:05] [SPEAKER_01] I think that's highly suggestive. And my best guess is that was not a coincidence. I think they probably had a lot to talk about that day.

[00:25:13] [SPEAKER_02] I would imagine they did. Also talked about how he deleted 5,000 items from or 5,000, I guess, like data points from Google Chrome, which happened the very morning of March 1st, 2022, which happened to be the day that Fernandez Saldana went to talk to police. So he's talking to police before that. He's deleting 5,000 things from Google Chrome. That seems, again.

[00:25:40] [SPEAKER_00] Highly suggestive.

[00:25:42] [SPEAKER_02] Highly suggestive of guilty knowledge and taking evasive maneuvers. And, yeah. She did not find any payments from Fernandez. You know, because here's one thing the defense was able to say, like, listen, Tennant is a really good handyman. Tennant is a really good day laborer. He can do stuff. He can fix stuff. Okay, so yeah.

[00:26:05] [SPEAKER_02] And if Fernandez Saldana is a landlord, that's somebody he might need to work with sometimes, even if it's his tenant. But one thing that really doesn't help the defense on that angle is that Butler was able to testify there's no payments between Fernandez Saldana to Tennant before the murder, only the three checks afterwards. So his behavior changes. If the defense wanted to be like, guys, he uses Tennant all the time.

[00:26:33] [SPEAKER_02] Look, here's, you know, he had him do this and that, and then that would be very bad for the state. But it's bad for the defense that they don't have that. Here's the one that I definitely watched carefully and thought was totally wild on so many levels. You have John Biggerstaff, who, of course, was a longtime friend of Fernandez Saldana. Fernandez Saldana dated his daughter in high school, was friends with his son, Juan Biggerstaff, and was also sleeping with his wife, Maria Biggerstaff.

[00:27:01] [SPEAKER_02] Because these guys are swingers. What are swingers, Kevin, for the, you know, people who do not know that?

[00:27:07] [SPEAKER_01] Swingers are people who have sex with people outside of their basic relationship. So you may be either a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband and wife, but then you have sex with people who are not your spouse. And that is with the full blessing of both parties in the relationship.

[00:27:28] [SPEAKER_02] It's like consensual. Non-monogamy. Non-monogamy. I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of nuances to what swinging is versus consensual ethical non-monogamy.

[00:27:38] [SPEAKER_01] I admit I'm not an expert on this.

[00:27:40] [SPEAKER_02] No, nor am I. I'm not. We're too square for this life. But, you know, that is something that, you know, they had that personal connection, I guess you could say, on several different levels. And the thing about John Biggerstaff is around, you know, around the lead up to the murder, this is a convicted felon. He was busted on drug and I believe sexual trafficking charges.

[00:28:05] [SPEAKER_02] He's a former JSO reserve officer and a career Navy, a man in the Navy. And he was, like, Googling 10-millimeter Glocks, which is what they believe Jared was killed with. So he's Googling that. And then it turns out he had a 10-millimeter Glock that suspiciously went missing. Where'd that go? Interesting.

[00:28:30] [SPEAKER_02] He, on the stand, denied giving Fernandez Saldana a Glock or any firearm. Said he's not involved in this. Said he owned a Glock 40 10-millimeter, which he bought for bear protection. But he hadn't seen it since he surrendered it after his 2016 conviction. And he was able to confirm that he is a swinger. And that he had a video of Fernandez Saldana having sex with his wife on his phone.

[00:28:58] [SPEAKER_02] But that was filmed February 15, 2022, which is the day before the murder. Kind of odd. But, yeah, he, you know, he was emphatic that he did not, you know. Basically, Dreiser point blank asked him, did you give him the gun in exchange for him sleeping with your wife? And he said no. This case is a lot of weird twists like that, you know.

[00:29:19] [SPEAKER_01] It really does. A lot of details.

[00:29:22] [SPEAKER_02] Like, I'm going to give you the gun to sleep with my spouse. That also just, I don't know. I'm not trying to kink shame anybody here. It's just a different lifestyle, I guess. But I think he's highly suspicious. And I think his credibility is next to zero for me personally. I don't believe him. And I don't believe his son. Let's talk about his son. Juan Biggerstaff is a former law enforcement officer. Again, like, these people are sketchy to me. I'm sorry.

[00:29:52] [SPEAKER_02] That's my opinion. I'm not trying to be unkind. I think their story doesn't make any sense. How do you lose a firearm?

[00:30:02] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, that seems difficult to do.

[00:30:05] [SPEAKER_02] How do you lose a firearm? Especially when you're a convicted felon. Like, you'd think, like, okay, I have all these guns. You would think you would, like, want to either get rid of them in a way that I'm documenting I sold it to this guy or whatever. I don't know what the rules are. But, like, here's what I did with them. And they're not my problem anymore. Or that you'd keep them in a very secure location. And especially with Juan Biggerstaff being a former law enforcement officer, you would

[00:30:34] [SPEAKER_02] think that, like, he would realize that, like, a stolen gun or a missing gun can end up on the street and hurt somebody. You know? But, you know, oh, we don't know. We put it in our friend's closet and we don't know where it is. I don't believe them. I don't believe them at all. I think they're lying. That's just my take. Sorry. Juan Biggerstaff said he never saw his father with a firearm after 2016, after he helped move 20 weapons for his father.

[00:31:00] [SPEAKER_02] He said he did use the 10 millimeter serial number when reporting two guns stolen from his vehicle in Texas in 2023. He says that that wasn't really the 10 millimeter. That was a mistake. And he admitted under ASA, Mizrahi's questioning that he did not report this accurately. Again, so not only do you lose this, but then oopsie doopsies, you put the wrong serial number

[00:31:27] [SPEAKER_02] of this mysterious 10 millimeter gun on this, like, fake, oh, it was stolen from my vehicle thing. I think these, I, I think these guys are just lying. Um, and you know, it's been made a big deal of like, well, they got, they would have had immunity, but you know, you know, I just, you don't know. Like people, I still find them sketchy. That doesn't really move me that much, I guess, you know, they could have all sorts of things

[00:31:56] [SPEAKER_02] going on that would make them not want to put their name on this. And we just don't know. But yeah, so, uh, so he, he basically, yeah, I mean, he didn't, I just didn't find them credible. I'd be curious, did people think differently? Did they find this credible? I, I didn't, maybe others disagree and that's okay. We heard from one of Fernandez-Saldana's friends, who is a woman named Taylor Cutis,

[00:32:22] [SPEAKER_02] who talked about, you know, conversations she'd have with her friend about his marriage, co-parenting disputes with Jared. You know, she heard a lot of complaints about Jared and this contract involving his wife's family sort of, where he was almost implying like it's a marriage of convenience and I have, you know, I get money out of it almost. And she, you know, the defense crossed her and she's saying this isn't verbatim, you know, I didn't take notes on it. And, um.

[00:32:52] [SPEAKER_01] In other words, most people don't take notes on their conversations with their friends.

[00:32:55] [SPEAKER_02] No, it's, that'd be kind of weird. Uh, man, uh, man named Victor Quiroz, who, um, was an online friend of Fernanda Saldana. They gamed together online. He visited him in March 22, 2022 in North Carolina, which was that whole weird, um, whole weird situation where he like did a road trip in the middle of this murder investigation and said they really didn't, it was normal and they didn't discuss the killing.

[00:33:24] [SPEAKER_02] And only later didn't even mention that. Um, Carlos, uh, Fong, who was, um, you know, had a record, you know, there were, with him, there were recorded, um, kind of profanity laced January, 2023 phone calls, um, where, uh, the friend Carlos told Fernanda Saldana, hey, the media is linking Gardner to the murder. Tenen's been arrested and, um, he was able to testify.

[00:33:52] [SPEAKER_02] This was good for the defense that, you know, Fernanda Saldana didn't admit anything to him, didn't seem evasive and just said, I didn't have anything to do with this. And, um, so, you know, that's something that's good for the, you know, the, the, if you're not confessing to a bunch of people, that's obviously a very good thing for the defense. You had this interesting, um, thing where the, the, the jury never heard this. This was in voir dire. This was an attempt to get this in, but it did not come in.

[00:34:22] [SPEAKER_02] But, uh, an inmate named, uh, Javel Ponder, this is one of those classic inmate informant that are often called jailhouse snitches. He is like a eight-time felony felon. I mean, he's a felon, uh, eight times over. And he testified outside of the presence of the jury that when they were sharing a jail dorm in 2024, Fernanda Saldana made a statement to him saying that Gardner had originally wanted

[00:34:51] [SPEAKER_02] to put together a fake rape charge against Pride again. But Fernanda Saldana said that's not going to work and it would only be temporary. And also made comments about Tenen saying he was too old and wasn't supposed to be the actual one doing the shooting. He was supposed to have like a nephew or something, um, help out. But basically that Tenen quote effed it all up. Um, and yeah.

[00:35:20] [SPEAKER_01] I'm curious, Anya, this is a really broad question, but what do you think about jailhouse snitches?

[00:35:24] [SPEAKER_02] I, listen, I, I'm very uncomfortable with them. It, to me, if there's some audio underpinning it, right? Or like, you know, someone's wearing a wire in their jailhouse snitch, well, then we know it happened. But if someone has multiple felony convictions, I'm sorry, that's not, that's not, that's not good. And I'm actually not even, like, I think this, it's possible that this happened.

[00:35:53] [SPEAKER_02] I'm not saying it's not, I'm not saying that Javel Ponder is necessarily lying here. It's more of, I think if I'm going to be, I don't, I feel like we have to be intellectually honest. And if we're for inmate, um, testimony in the, in these instances, like we should be very scrupulous about what we're okay with. So let me get like.

[00:36:16] [SPEAKER_01] So why, why did they decide not to let this be heard by the jury?

[00:36:19] [SPEAKER_02] I think this was honestly, I think this was, um, one of those things where, um, she, the judge kite found that it would have been unfair prejudicial, but also there'd be procedural prejudice to the defense because this has came up very late in the game and the defense had hadn't had adequate time to investigate his extensive criminal background. And impeach him.

[00:36:44] [SPEAKER_01] Did, did you find this witness credible?

[00:36:51] [SPEAKER_02] Like knowing what I know about Gardner and Fernandez-Saldana and how they would talk about things and how they would plot against Jared Bride again. Yeah. But does that mean it should be used? No. Yeah. Also, I didn't, maybe I'm missing something. And if I'm missing something, you know, we tried to watch all this and catch up, but I'm sure the stuff we missed or stuff, maybe, you know, if we misinterpreted something, I'd love to know what people think.

[00:37:17] [SPEAKER_02] Like if one big differentiator to me is if, if, if something that an inmate knows is something that is really not out there, it can be out there a little bit, but like it really not generally well known. If that's incorporated in their testimony, that would make me a little bit more favorable to it because it's like, how would they have known? But, you know, I, I'm not aware of anything in this that was like, oh, only the killer would know that.

[00:37:45] [SPEAKER_02] Or even, even anything close to that. It's more of just like. Right. It's one of those weird things where like I kind of do believe it, but I also, I also kind of just, I don't, I, I understand where the judge is coming from. So I'm not like, I don't think it's shocking that it was not allowed in.

[00:38:07] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, that makes sense.

[00:38:09] [SPEAKER_02] Got to protect the defendant's rights above all else. So the defense had two witnesses of their own. Petra Orbitzberger, who was the head of school at the Discovery School at Jacksonville Beach and Lauren Meredith, who was a teacher there. And, you know, they, they talked about like, you know, some details like Jared Bridegan didn't seem to want his kids at that school. Turns out he wanted them closer to home.

[00:38:38] [SPEAKER_02] They, you know, Fernandez Saldana was involved and friendly and, you know, but stopped being involved with the children after the murder. And also, yeah. There was talk about asking Kirsten Bridegan to take down a quote, inflammatory post on the Justice for Jared Instagram page, which she did. And, you know, there was a memorial for Jared Bridegan with Fernandez and Fernandez Saldana and Gardner's help through the school.

[00:39:08] [SPEAKER_02] And, you know, what they were really there for was to confirm that they both knew that Fernandez Saldana and Gardner were separating in 2022. And that originally they were going to have Fernandez Saldana move out during spring break, but that was delayed once the murder happened. So why is that important for the defense? Well, the defense is saying, hey, this isn't some happy-go-lucky married couple of murderers, Gardner and Fernandez Saldana, in other words.

[00:39:35] [SPEAKER_02] These are people who are getting a divorce themselves. So, like, why would they work together on this? And there's some ideas on the other side for that. But yeah. Okay. Okay. So where does this leave us? What's going on? So let's talk about the prongs of evidence that I, you know, the prongs of the state's case I think are most significant. One, digital evidence. Fernandez Saldana, we know, now deleted thousands and thousands of files, call logs, messages

[00:40:03] [SPEAKER_02] the very morning he was scheduled to interview with police. He had a big gap of time during the window of the murder, the night of the murder, as far as his phone data goes. His phone was factory reset before collection. And there were 5,000 plus chrome deletions the morning of his interview. And in addition to that, cell phone tower maps place Henry Tennant in Jacksonville Beach

[00:40:33] [SPEAKER_02] and kind of break down the timeline of the murder. Another prong is the finances. Three checks from Fernandez Saldana to Tennant, totaling $10,000, which is a lot of money. It's a lot of money. It's a lot of money for anybody. But it's also a lot of money for a guy like Tennant who's always been broke and who's never gotten money from Fernandez Saldana before. And the state argues that the services that these were supposedly for didn't happen are a ruse.

[00:41:04] [SPEAKER_02] They had no history of working together like this before. And suddenly he's giving him $10,000 after the murder. And Detective Johns testified that in the irrevocable trust account that we mentioned that Gardner had from her parents, that went from $200,000 to $12,000 around the time of the murder. Gardner couldn't control that trust or that money without Fernandez Saldana. So is that him basically paying himself for the murder?

[00:41:33] [SPEAKER_02] Another prong is the connection. Can't really get past this. Henry Tennant had no issue with Jared Bright again. They did not know each other. They did not run in the same circles. They did not live in the same areas. They did not have anything to do with one another. At all. So why would Tennant, who again, the defense... Tennant is so screwed in this that the defense concedes, like, yeah, he definitely did it. Like Tennant's really... Like, yeah.

[00:42:03] [SPEAKER_02] We'll talk about this more in a minute. Tennant baffles me. But he, you know, he's... His only connection to Jared is that he rented a home through a man who hated Jared Bright again. And a man who had every, you know, who seemingly had a lot of anger towards Jared Bright again. And that was Mario Fernandez Saldana. That was the only connection between them. Doesn't... Like, nothing else really makes any sense.

[00:42:36] [SPEAKER_02] And, yeah. So other notes that I think might be important before we go into the defense's counterpoints is that the murder weapon was never found here. So we don't have that. Sounds like it may... They believe it may have been destroyed shortly after the murders. The murder, rather. John Biggerstaff's testimony indicates that his 10 millimeter at least went missing probably around the time of the murders or before that or whatever. That's all very suspicious to me.

[00:43:05] [SPEAKER_02] And Fernandez Saldana himself did not testify, as is his right. And the judge even singled that out to discuss that with the jury. Why would the judge take such care to address that with the jury, Kevin?

[00:43:17] [SPEAKER_01] Because for a lot of jurors and a lot of people, period, it's human nature to assume, oh, if this was me and I was accused of doing something horrible that I didn't do, I would want to stand up and tell the world I didn't do it. And it's very natural then to assume, oh, if this person isn't testifying, it must be because he's guilty.

[00:43:42] [SPEAKER_01] And the fact of the matter is, as you so adeptly pointed out, there are good reasons not to testify. And the jury should be reminded, don't draw any conclusions from the fact that they didn't testify.

[00:43:56] [SPEAKER_02] You know, I think for me, the testimony thing is important. And I think you have to remember from the defense's perspective here, Fernandez Saldana is a guy who went into the police after his, you know, wife's ex-husband got murdered and talked about how the kids were better off without him. How do you think that guy is going to play on the stand? I think the jury would hate him.

[00:44:19] [SPEAKER_03] Yes.

[00:44:19] [SPEAKER_02] I think the jury would, you know, I mean, and you don't want the jury to hate your client. I think the only, like, when we talk to defense attorneys, they're like, the only time you put your defendant on, your client on, is if you were like 100% sure that they're going to come across really well and they're going to be able to explain it.

[00:44:41] [SPEAKER_02] And like, you got to be like 100, like, the risk is not worth the reward in many cases, especially for personalities like this guy's, you know. And again, he has a history of being abrasive. That's the thing we heard again and again from different people. He has a history of being very sketchy, frankly.

[00:44:59] [SPEAKER_02] Like, there are sexual misconduct and assault, you know, or, you know, sexual, there's allegations of him of the sexual nature about him trying to drug women, you know. I mean, so this is something that he's not a likable guy. I wouldn't put him on either. And I think they made a good call with that. So the defense points, and they got some good points here.

[00:45:23] [SPEAKER_02] You know, I think I talked about the state's case, but these are some important things to know also that was mostly elicited through cross-examination. So one thing was that, you know, they had, you know, they never found the firearm.

[00:45:44] [SPEAKER_00] Right. Right.

[00:45:46] [SPEAKER_02] They had one kind of twist that I thought was really interesting. Much has been made about, well, who would know where Jared was or that he had a daddy date night every other week or whatever. How would anyone know this? And what the defense brought out was, hey, did you know that the date night schedule is public in a court docket from the divorce? Technically, that means that maybe not only the family would know.

[00:46:14] [SPEAKER_02] Although, frankly, to me, like, who would care about that and who would know where to look? You know what I mean? I didn't, like, I appreciate what they were doing there. I guess I'll say that.

[00:46:23] [SPEAKER_01] It's a valid point.

[00:46:24] [SPEAKER_02] It's a valid point. Is it one that really changes the game that much? Because I don't know about you, I mean, I don't know about our listeners, but I don't sit around being like, hey, let me hit the family court docket and see, like, who's fighting. Like, I mean, I don't know. Also doesn't really give anyone a motive to kill Jared. It seems that Fernandez Saldana and Gardner were really the only people who had that, from what I can tell. And I will give this defense team credit.

[00:46:50] [SPEAKER_02] They're really doing this classic not guilty, you know, like, not getting to reasonable doubt. Like, they're trying to inject reasonable doubt in it. And I think they're not doing this, like, conspiracy nonsense. And I think they've done a good job with that of, like, hey, is there enough evidence? We don't think so. They talked about how Fernandez Saldana, if, you know, if the state's theory is that he was maybe driving the truck, well, his DNA is not in it. Not on any tested item. Not on the tire.

[00:47:20] [SPEAKER_02] Not on anything. So he's not coming up as far as that goes. You also have, this is perhaps the most bizarre element of this to me. The state lost their star witness, their star eyewitness, Henry Tennant, right?

[00:47:35] [SPEAKER_00] Right.

[00:47:36] [SPEAKER_02] Henry Tennant, the gunman, is somebody who initially flipped. He was going to plead guilty and presumably testify against Gardner and Fernandez Saldana. Then he unflipped and he took back his guilty plea. He's going to trial last after Fernandez Saldana and Gardner. I don't know what he was thinking.

[00:48:01] [SPEAKER_02] I get the sense, like, you know, it's definitely not a very bright move, in my opinion, for him, because it seems like what does he it seems like his decision mostly benefits Gardner and Fernandez Saldana as opposed to himself.

[00:48:17] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah, it's an interesting decision he made.

[00:48:20] [SPEAKER_02] It's like, is he just not a super bright guy? You could certainly imagine anyone who's involved in a murder plot is not very bright. But at the same time, like, I don't know. Are his attorneys giving him this advice? It just, it seems bizarre to me. But yeah, in the closing arguments, Christina Stifler, the ASA for the state, you know, she compared the case to a tapestry. That was her metaphor, you know, and that was to kind of show the jury.

[00:48:47] [SPEAKER_02] Fernandez Saldana didn't necessarily leave the tire or pull the trigger, but he's the thread that holds this entire tapestry together. Meanwhile, Jesse Dreiser did the defense side. He emphasized the importance of reasonable doubt, said the state doesn't have a tapestry. It's just got a bunch of random snapshots thrown all over the place, and that doesn't add up to murder. And there's no direct physical evidence or record a conversation where he's like, yeah, we're going to kill this guy.

[00:49:16] [SPEAKER_02] So, and then rebuttal, you know, no circumstantial evidence is perfectly valid. You can convict on that. Use your common sense.

[00:49:23] [SPEAKER_01] Use your common sense. So what's next, Anya?

[00:49:26] [SPEAKER_02] Well, now we wait for the jury. My question is for all of you lovely listeners and for you, my lovely husband.

[00:49:33] [SPEAKER_00] Yes, sir.

[00:49:33] [SPEAKER_02] The gentleman and attorney, Kevin Greenlee. What do you think about this case? Do you think it is going to result in a conviction? Are there too many holes in it?

[00:49:44] [SPEAKER_01] Seems to be a pretty strong case. What do you think?

[00:49:47] [SPEAKER_02] I'm always iffy in this modern day CSI effect kind of nonsense. I think that these people are all guilty. I'm not going to lie. I mean, like the trial convinced me of that. Is a jury going to definitely convict? I don't know.

[00:50:03] [SPEAKER_01] It's folly to predict what a jury is going to do.

[00:50:06] [SPEAKER_02] It is folly. But sometimes it's like, okay, that's a slam dunk. I don't think this is. And I don't really think this is because it was a failing of an investigation. I just think murder conspiracies, if people get to delete stuff and, you know, you have uncooperative people like the bigger staffs and Tenen who are not going to play ball, it just becomes harder. It becomes harder. And I find it to be a compelling case, but I could see a jury being like, that's not enough for us.

[00:50:36] [SPEAKER_02] So I don't know. I don't know how it's going to go down. I think it can kind of, I think we'll have to see. To me, like the money is very compelling, you know, but like they might see that and be like, well, maybe it just was being nice. Like, I don't know. I don't know how you could think that. But at the same time, I could, you know, things happen. What do you guys think? Do you think there was some areas that the defense or the prosecution could have hit harder? Do you think that it's definitely going to go one way or another? Or are you kind of like me where you're a little bit ambivalent? I'd be very curious.

[00:51:07] [SPEAKER_02] And do you have like a difference between, yeah, I think this is what actually happened, but I think this is how the jury is going to go? Because that's kind of where I am. I'm convinced beyond a reasonable doubt, personally. And again, that is, at the same time, I want to commend the defense. I thought they did a very good job. It wasn't that they did a bad job and that made me think he was guilty. I just, to me, all this stuff, like, doesn't make any sense. And it only makes sense if he was a participant in this murder plot.

[00:51:37] [SPEAKER_02] But anyways, I'd love to know what you guys think. Thank you all so much for listening. And we'll kind of keep you apprised as we're on Verdict Watch. But thank you. As you know from the top, as I was editing this and preparing to put it out, and I've actually already put it out on Patreon, sorry for that confusion. The news just dropped that the jurors have convicted Mario Fernandez-Saldana on all counts. So I guess our analysis proves that Kevin is always right when he says that this was a really solid case.

[00:52:07] [SPEAKER_02] And I'm, you know, usually not right. So congrats to Kevin on that one. And I think the thing that I would say about this development is it's looking probably pretty bad at this point for Shanna Gardner and certainly Henry Tennant. So we'll be curious to see what happens next. And we'll be keeping you posted on those upcoming trials. And we'll be looking to cover those as well. But thank you all so much for listening.

[00:52:34] [SPEAKER_01] 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.com. If you have actionable information about an unsolved crime, please report it to the appropriate authorities.

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[00:53:18] [SPEAKER_01] Special thanks to Kevin Tyler Greenlee, who composed the music for The Murder Sheet, and who you can find on the web at kevintg.com.

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