JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A ruling was handed down Monday in the decision of whether or not the State Attorney's Office (SAO) Fourth Judicial Circuit will stay on the high-profile murder case of Jared Bridegan, an issue that has been debated since November.
Bridegan's ex-wife, Shanna Gardner and her second husband, Mario Fernandez are facing first-degree murder charges and conspiracy to commit murder charges related to his death, in what investigators say was a "murder-for-hire" plot.
In the courtroom Monday morning, Judge London Kite ruled that the SAO's Fourth Judicial Circuit will stay on the case, however, lose a key piece of evidence- a document containing text messages between Mario Fernandez and Henry Tenon.
The text messages were one of two in question in the case. One document appeared to be a timeline, Judge Kite said she reviewed it and it does appear to be privileged. The other is a set of text messages between Fernandez and Henry Tenon, the man who has already pleaded guilty to firing the shots that killed Bridegan. Kite said those were not privileged, but because of poor judgment decisions from the prosecution, those text messages will be suppressed.
"The text messages, because of the substantial violation of the discovery agreement, the court will suppress that as well," Kite said. "So, you will not be able to use against Mr. Fernandez a document that you got in violation of that you entered into with the defense."
Prosecutors had previously said the document with the text messages was their only way of showing what the deleted messages between Tenon and Fernandez said, so ruling is significant to the prosecution. Moving forward the judge said there will be case management hearings to make sure attorney-client privileged material is being handled responsibly.
Judge Kite denied Gardner's motion for a dismissal and denied the motion to suppress her iMessages as well during Monday's ruling.
The next issue to be sorted out will be a hearing on a motion for a bond for Gardner, which will happen Wednesday afternoon.