BENTON COUNTY, Wash. — Jared Bridegan's ex-wife, Shanna Gardner-Fernandez, will be brought back to Jacksonville following an extradition hearing that took place in Washington Thursday morning.
Gardner is charged in the February 2022 shooting death of Jared Bridegan, a father of four. Two other people, including her second husband, Mario Fernandez, are also charged in the Jacksonville Beach shooting.
At Gardner's extradition hearing Thursday, she appeared on screen from the Benton County Jail via Webex. The state (Washington) said they are dismissing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee's extradition warrant to allow Gardner to be transferred back to Jacksonville.
The state said, "the only thing left outstanding is Florida needs to make arrangements to take her back."
What happened to Jared Bridegan?
Bridegan, who lived in St. Augustine, was gunned down in the street in Jacksonville Beach while leaving Gardner's home in Jacksonville Beach on Feb. 16, 2022. He had dropped off their 10-year-old children and was driving home with his 2-year-old daughter, Bexley. The shooting happened when Bridegan got out of the car to move a tire blocking the road -- which police now say was planned there intentionally to lure him from the car.
The child abuse charge stems from Bexley's witnessing of the crime.
Police records show that Bridegan and Gardner had a "highly acrimonious divorce." Gardner's husband, Mario Fernandez-Saldana, has also been arrested in the crime. Police records say Bridegan had a "contentious" relationship to both Fernandez-Saldana and Gardner.
In addition to Gardner and her husband, a 62-year-old man named Henry Tenon, who once rented a home from Fernandez-Saldana, was charged in the crime. Tenon pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
Tenon's car matched both the truck seen at the crime scene and the tire Bridegan found in the road that night. While Tenon may have been the shooter, police stressed since his arrest that he "did not act alone."
Tenon was the first to be arrested on Jan. 25, 2023. Fernandez-Saldana's arrest was the next domino to fall on March 16.
Police linked Tenon to Fernandez-Saldana after finding evidence that he was paying him for something; the warrant for his arrest says police uncovered three checks from Fernandez-Saldana to Tenon.