JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The husband and wife accused in the 2022 murder for hire plot against a St John’s County Microsoft Executive were once again in court on Thursday morning. During the hearing, the prosecution expressed concern that any pre-trial motions the defense teams may want to file might interfere with the jury selection for both defendants.
For context, Mario Fernandez Saldana is accused of hiring hitman Henry Tenon to kill his wife Shana Gardner’s ex-husband Jared Bridegan. During the 2022 killing, Bridegan was ambushed and shot to death on a roadside while his child was in the backseat of his car.
During the hearing, prosecution expressed concern that any pre-trial motions the defense teams may want to file might interfere with the jury selections for both defendants.
“Tell me what the overlap is,” Judge London M Kite asked one of the prosecutors.
“Five days, so it’s five days for the commencement of each jury selection, so the state’s thought process is some of those motions will overlap, and as practical as we can make it, the Gardner motion appears to be filed five days before Fernandez motion, so we just wanna make sure we can hear them all at the same time,” they replied.
Fernandez’s defense said that the possibility existed that they could file motions, but none could come to his mind at the moment.
Ultimately, Judge Kite appeared to give all litigants until next Monday to make mention of any more pre-jury selection motions.
The state said that a child with the initials (which appeared to sound like) BB will not be called by them to testify during the trial; it’s unclear specifically which trial or both– so there does not need to be any litigation on competency issues. But the defense did agree to the admission of a video from the scene involving a minor child.
Another child in this case (initials “AB”) will appear via Zoom in the Fernandez case.
Another hearing regarding any more pre-trial motions in this case will be Monday, July 13 at 11 am I n Duval County Courtroom 407.
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