JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A new court order filed this week shows decisions about whether or not the State Attorney's Office Fourth Judicial Circuit will remain on the high-profile prosecution of Shanna Gardner and Mario Fernandez-Saldana will stay with the current Judge London Kite.
Gardner and her second husband, Fernandez-Saldana, are facing first-degree murder charges in the death of Gardner's ex-husband, Jared Bridegan. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Bridegan was killed in February of 2022 in what investigators have described as a 'murder-for-hire plot.' Bridegan was killed after dropping off his two oldest children at Gardner's home in the Sanctuary neighborhood in Jacksonville Beach.
Police say he stopped to move a tire from the roadway when he was ambushed by Henry Tenon and shot to death. In March 2023, pleaded guilty to 2nd degree murder charges in the Jacksonville Beach shooting death of Bridegan.
In the latest order from the court, Kite says she is vacating any and all orders from the Special Master, Judge Robert Foster and she will be directly addressing the matters moving forward.
The defense teams for Gardner and Fernandez had previously alleged in court filings that the State Attorney's Office Fourth Judicial Circuit mishandled attorney-client privileged communications and therefore should be removed from the case.
In a court hearing on March 7, Kite said since reviewing the documents in question could involve attorney-client privileged materials, she did not want to view them and requested an independent magistrate. Foster was then appointed as the Special Master to review and decide on the documents.
Then in a March 25 hearing, the State Attorney's Office and defense teams were back before Kite arguing over which judge should then make the ruling on whether or not the State Attorney's Office will stay on the case. The state wanted Foster to make the decision and the defense wanted Kite. In the hearing, it also seemed the parties were not in agreement over what exactly was to be viewed and decided on in regards to the possible attorney-client privileged communications.
"These directives were derived from what the Court thought was an agreement by the parties as to the limited scope of the Special Master's role in determining whether certain documents are privileged attorney-client communications. It is apparent from the parties' arguments that this is not the case. Considering this, the court believes that without an agreement by the parties as to this role, there is no longer a benefit to using a special master to assist in assessing these documents," wrote Kite in her order.
Kite says she will be vacating any and all orders directing Foster to act in this case and she will address the matters herself.
The next court hearing for Gardner and Fernandez-Saldana is Monday.
