New trial today? The judge decides. ⚖️
📅 12 November 2026
A Jacksonville judge is expected to decide today, Thursday 12 November, whether Mario Fernandez Saldana gets a new trial after his conviction in the 2022 murder-for-hire killing of Jared Bridegan.
Fernandez Saldana, 38, was found guilty of first-degree murder and solicitation to commit a capital felony in the plot to kill Bridegan — his wife Shanna Gardner's ex-husband — amid a bitter divorce and custody fight. His latest motion, filed 16 October, centres on new evidence: a stolen .40-calibre handgun recovered in September during an unrelated narcotics investigation in Texas.
Prosecutors say the gun changes nothing — the defence failed to object to many of the issues at trial, and no claim amounts to fundamental error. If Judge London Kite denies the motion, she is likely to move to sentencing: a first-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory life sentence in Florida.
Gardner and the alleged hitman, Henry Tenon, are due to be tried together next year. Fernandez Saldana also still faces separate lewd and lascivious charges against minors.
A gun found two years later — enough for a new trial, or not? 👇