BENTON COUNTY, Wash. — Two days after Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed an extradition order to return Shanna Gardner-Fernandez to Duval County, the woman accused of killing her ex-husband appeared before a judge in that state.
Gardner is charged in the February 2022 shooting death of Jared Bridegan. Two other people, including her second husband, Mario Fernandez, are also charged in the Jacksonville Beach shooting.
At her extradition hearing Thursday, Gardner-Fernandez appeared on screen from the Benton County jail via Webex. The judge stated that the court had not yet received the governor's extradition order meaning Gardner would have to remain in Washington for another couple of weeks. The hearing was rescheduled for Oct. 19.
After that time, it will be determined when Gardner-Fernandez will be brought to Florida to stand trial in Bridegan's death.
What happened to Jared Bridegan?
The father of four, 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."
He was the first to be arrested on January 25. 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.
