The husband of murdered Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan’s ex-wife was indicted on first-degree murder charges Thursday, March 16, over the February 2022 slaying.
Mario Fernandez Saldana, who was arrested in Kissimmee, Florida, is married to Shanna Gardner-Fernandez, Jared Bridegan’s ex-wife.
Mario Fernandez Saldana and Shanna Gardner-Fernandez
Gardner-Fernandez and Bridegan shared twins and had been locked in a contentious custody battle shortly before his killing.
Bridegan, a devout Mormon who had been a software developer for Microsoft, was killed in front of his daughter Bexley, whom he shared with his second wife, Kristen.
The executive had noticed a tire in the road and pulled over to remove it when he was fatally shot in what police called a planned ambush.
Little Bexley was in the backseat and alone in the car for a few minutes until a passerby noticed her father dead on the road and called 911.
Saldana was arrested just a few hours after his former tenant and occasional handyman Henry Tenon pleaded guilty to second-degree murder charges in the killing, First Coast News said.
Henry Tenon
Gardner-Fernandez and Saldana had reportedly split following Bridegan’s killing but both previously denied any involvement in the crime.
Their Jacksonville Beach neighbors told The Post earlier this year that Saldana once killed a local cat.
Mario Fernandez Saldana
“The whole thing was very, very frightening,” the neighbor said. “It was very disturbing.”
Gardner-Fernandez, who comes from a high-profile Mormon family, left the Florida home in November and moved to Richland, Washington, with the 10-year-old twins she shared with the slain Microsoft employee.
Jared Bridegan and his family, including twins he shares with ex-wife
She is said to have given up on religion after splitting from her first husband, with their marriage reportedly ending after she had an affair.
Following his split with Gardner-Fernandez in 2015, Jared Bridegan went on to marry Kirsten, mother of Bexley and another daughter, London.
Husband is busted in the cold-blooded murder of his wife
“I’m not surprised, to be honest,” Kirsten Bridegan said shortly after Henry Tenon’s January arrest. “This was orchestrated, this was planned and this was specific to Jared.”
The widow said their daughter Bexley has struggled since her father’s murder.
“She heard the noises of the shots that killed her dad, and she was alone wondering what happened to him, and he’s not answering her for minutes — and minutes are an eternity for a child,” she said.
