Stunning details in a newly released court document expose jailhouse conversations said to have occurred between Mario Fernandez Saldana and another inmate about setting up Jared Bridegan’s widow, Kirsten Bridegan, as his murderer.
Included in the discussions were statements that Shanna Gardner, Bridegan’s ex-wife who later married Fernandez Saldana, was the mastermind in his 2022 ambush shooting in Jacksonville Beach. The two are charged in the murder plot along with Henry Tenon, whose landlord was Fernandez Saldana.
The three-page May 28 filing is listed as a supplemental discovery exhibit. A large portion focuses on “statements relayed by Mario Fernandez to Emmanuel Alexander” while in jail from May 2025 to March 26.
Alexander, 48, is awaiting trial on a May 2025 attempted murder charge of his wife who was shot several times during a domestic dispute. Jail records show he was released on bond on April 6 of this year and readmitted on May 31 for new charges.
Following is the transcript from those alleged conversations relayed to prosecutors on Feb. 4.
Mario Fernandez was stressed out about his case and his hair was falling out. Fernandez said that the widow of the victim was an “evil bitch.” Fernandez knew Alexander had a bond hearing and was raising money to bond out, and approached Alexander with a plan to help him “frame the widow.”
Fernandez asked Alexander to contact Fernandez’s brother and attorney when he was released to mail letters to the media and law enforcement agencies. The letters contained information provided by Fernandez to make Henry Tenon look like a liar and to suggest that the widow killed the victim because she was suspicious of “him being gay” and that Alexander was supposed to “make it up that he [victim] was going to the gym to look at guys.”
Fernandez provided Alexander with cases regarding prosecutor misconduct and wanted to point everything to Tenon and “turn the situation around” on him. Fernandez stated that “my wife [Gardner] was the mm [mastermind] and he [Fernandez] was supposed to be the executioner” in discussions about his case, with a nonverbal acknowledgment that it was true.
Fernandez stated that Tenon was “drugged out” or “drunk” or both. Fernandez asked Alexander to assist in “setting Judge [London] Kite up” because he knew Alexander was a Free Mason. Fernandez said that there was a 12-year-old girl with a case against him in the Carolinas that the Judge had sealed to hide that the widow set him up. Fernandez said that he reviewed his discovery and that “they don’t have anything on me” and stated that “the time was off” with him being a certain place, and that someone from the State had come to his defense team’s side.
Fernandez stated that Tenon was in Nassau and that he was trying to get to him; later when Tenon was moved back to Duval County Jail, Fernandez said he was trying to make him recant.
(Alexander provided a sworn statement, however, due to technical issues with Official Court Reporters electronic service, the audio recording was lost). Relayed to the State on April 1, 2026, during a recorded sworn statement: Fernandez was “supposedly, supposed to be innocent,” and Alexander was supposed “to be helping him frame the wife [victim’s wife] for murder” and to “discredit the co-defendant [Henry Tenon].”
Fernandez told him that the night of the murder, the codefendant and the victim’s wife passed by each other, and that Fernandez was trying to use that fact to discredit her and put her on as a defendant. Fernandez said that “she [Gardner] was supposed to be the MM, which is mastermind, and he was supposed to be the executioner, which he executed the plan” and an acknowledgement that it was true (nonverbal).
The document says Alexander has two prior felony convictions and has never previously cooperated in any case. The state has made no offers or promises regarding his pending case and objected to his bond being reduced.
Fernandez Saldana’s next hearing is scheduled for July 9.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Inmate: Mario Fernandez Saldana said wife was mastermind in murder
Reporting by Scott Butler, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
