Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis orders extradition of murdered Microsoft exec’s ex-wife from Washington so that she can be charged
A woman who allegedly ordered the murder of her Microsoft ex-husband will be extradited from Washington state to Florida to face murder charges — thanks to Governor Ron DeSantis.
The Sunshine State rioter signed the warrant involving 35-year-old Shanna Gardner-Fernandez on Thursday after much speculation about whether he would make the move — especially given the attention the case has received.
Gardner-Fernandez, formerly of Jacksonville, is accused of masterminding a plot in which her ex-husband, 33-year-old Jared Bridegan, was shot on a Jacksonville Beach road in February 2022 in front of his daughter from a new wedding.
After the murder, Gardner-Fernandez — the daughter of the owners of a multimillion-dollar paper company — moved to the Pacific Northwest, to a city about 3,000 miles away without the death penalty.
In the period since, law enforcement tracked down and arrested the woman’s alleged accomplices: a 63-year-old hit man who admitted to the shooting, and Gardner-Fernandez’s new husband.
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Shanna Gardner-Fernandez, who was seen handcuffed here last month in her new $1 million home in Washington, now faces the death penalty for allegedly masterminding the murder of her ex-Microsoft husband, who was killed early last year murdered in her old hometown of Jacksonville
Governor Ron DeSantis signed the extradition order Thursday morning, after much speculation about whether he would take such a step in the highly publicized case
Jared Bridegan was shot in front of his daughter, 2, allegedly on Gardner-Fernandez’s orders as he drove baby Brexan — his child from another marriage — to Jacksonville Beach.
Gardner-Fernandez’s arrest last August soon followed, at her $1 million home in West Richland, in the presence of her mother and the 12-year-old twins she shared with Jared.
She is charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, for which she now faces the death penalty.
The signing of the warrant was confirmed to DailyMail.com on Thursday by the Jacksonville District Attorney’s Office, which said Bridegan will not attend the extradition hearing scheduled for later in the day.
“The Gardner-Fernandez hearing was continued until October 5 so that Washington could receive the warrant,” the spokesperson said.
Florida’s 46th governor has yet to make a statement on his signing of the somewhat expected order, which Gardner Fernandez’s legal team vowed to fight last month.
That claim came during the woman’s first hearing after her arrest on August 16, from high-profile criminal defense attorney Hank Coxe – who Gardner-Fernandez hired.
However, a spokesperson for DeSantis’ office did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment The warrant is currently confirmed to be on its way to Benton County.
DeSantis State law officials made clear weeks ago that they would seek the death penalty in the case of Gardner Fernandez — which dates back much further than her somewhat expected arrest in August.
Jared was lured out of his car on a quiet stretch of road by a tire left in the middle of the road
The Microsoft executive was found two miles from Shanna’s home after dropping off the children on February 16. It was on a quiet stretch of road, where there were no security cameras.
Jared was shot on this road, surrounded by trees, in Jacksonville Beach. No cameras captured the murder – which took place after the late director left his vehicle to remove a tire placed in the middle of the road
Hitman Henry Tenon confessed earlier this year to being the shooter, lying in wait and ready to execute Bridegan when he stepped outside to clear the obstacle from the road
Five hundred and forty-seven days earlier, Bridegan, a father of four who has two children with the suspect, was murdered execution-style just minutes from his ex-wife’s home.
He was shot multiple times at close range in what police described as an “ambush” and “targeted” attack – carried out by Danny Tenon, 61, a former tenant of Gardner-Fernandez’s new husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana.
He is accused of hiring the long-in-the-tooth triggerman — who is cooperating against his alleged co-conspirators as part of a plea deal — to shoot and kill Bridegan in a brutal slaying in front of his two-year-old child . daughter.
The murder took place on a quiet stretch of road lined with thick trees and was not captured on surveillance cameras.
At the time, Bridegan, a senior UX designer at Microsoft, was embroiled in a very bitter custody battle with his ex-wife over twins Liam and Abby, years after their 2015 divorce.
On February 16, Jared had just dropped off the twins he shares with Gardner-Fernandez at their mother’s house and was driving home with his daughter in the backseat when he came across a tire in the middle of the road.
He stopped and got out to move the tire, but was shot and killed by Tenon.
“Because it was in that area, someone knew what he was doing. There are no cameras, there are no houses. There is no Ring doorbell.” Kirsten, his widow, told DailyMail.com at the time of his murder.
“It’s trees and one-way traffic.”
Police Tenon was arrested earlier this year on unrelated charges, although he confessed to his role in the murder.
He told police that Saldana-Fernandez hired him and is now willing to testify against him at trial. The couple met when he rented a house from him.
It’s unclear how Gardner-Fernandez met her new husband, but those who knew them before their arrest say she became “wilder and wilder” as their romance progressed.
Shanna’s new husband, Mario Saldana-Fernandez, was indicted earlier this year and is awaiting trial. He was once Tenon’s landlord and is said to have enlisted the 61-year-old to carry out the attack
Shanna with the couple’s twins Abby and Liam. At the time of Jared’s death, she made public pleas for support for them on Facebook and Instagram
She visited a tattoo parlor in 2015 and asked for a genital piercing – a request that shocked staff who said she looked like a ‘normal mother’.
“She went from this good girl with two shoes to this wild lady. “I remember thinking, this is a changed woman,” an employee said at the time.
Speaking at the time of the killing — shortly before Gardner-Fernandez moved to Washington with the help of her parents — a then-Jacksonville Beach police chief, Gene Paul Smith, said Bridegan was “shot in cold blood.”
An investigation followed that led to the arrests of Tenlon, Saldana-Fernandez and most recently Gardner-Fernandez, who appeared undisturbed in ATF bodycam footage showing her recent arrest.
It’s unclear what kind of new evidence led police to finally charge Gardener-Fernandez, who has kept a low profile since the killing — though Kirsten Bridegan, Jared’s widow, said she wasn’t surprised after she learned of Telon’s arrest last January, citing his connection to Gardner-Fernandez’s new husband
“I’m honestly not surprised,” she told Fox News at the time.
“They accused (Tenon) of conspiracy. That means there are more people. This was orchestrated, this was planned and this was specific to Jared.”
In an emotional last month, Kirsten, along with her husband’s brother Adam, 36, told DailyMail.com of her “satisfaction” with Gardner-Fernandez’s arrest.
“It’s satisfying to know that the person who I believe was the driving force behind this is not getting the privileges that she allegedly took from Jared,” she said.
“My personal thought is that I trust (prosecutors) to make the best decision for the case and if that’s the death penalty, then we support that.”
Gardner-Fernandez’s trial will now continue on October 5 in Florida. Five people have already been executed in the state this year.