JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — Newly-released body camera footage shows Shanna Gardner, ex-wife of Jared Bridegan, being arrested, booked and taken to jail in Benton County, Washington, where she lives. Because Bridegan was killed in Jacksonville Beach, she will be extradited to Duval County.
Gardner was arrested last Thursday after a grand jury indicted her on four charges related to Bridegan's "death: first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, solicitation to commit first-degree murder, and child abuse. Florida State Attorney Melissa Nelson says Gardner planned a "key and central role" to Bridegan's "cold, calculated, pre-meditated" murder. The State intends to seek the death penalty.
When Gardner appeared in court last week, where a judge ordered her to be held with no bond, she could be seen smiling.
In the videos, Gardner appears calm and collected, talking with police and asking questions about what will happen with her medications after she is in custody.
The footage shows police lead her out of the home, handcuffed, barefoot in pajamas. Six officers supervise her as she is seated in a chair on her porch. Someone in the home brings her a pair of shoes. One of her children can be heard inside asking "where are your jeans, mom?" before a female officer brings her a pair of jeans and she goes inside to change.
In the video, Gardner walks freely without an escort to the car with officers walking beside and around her. She yells "love you, honey!" to someone behind them as they walk to the car.
For a split second, Gardner can be seen laughing before they close the door to the car.
After she is taken from the police car, Gardner appears more distressed and much quieter. She is cuffed to the wall in an interview room.
The next part of the body camera footage shows Gardner being taken from the interview room and put back into a police car. When she is lead out of the interview room, there is a pile of used tissues on the table.
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 February 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.
