JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Shanna Gardner and her estranged husband, Mario Fernandez-Saldana, were back in the courtroom Tuesday.
Two issues were discussed in the hearing; first, whether or not spousal privilege will be able to be used in the case and second, Gardner's defense motion that there were discovery violations.
On Friday, Shanna Gardner’s attorney, Jose Baez, held a press conference on the courthouse steps and said favorable evidence was being withheld and accused the lead detective of lying under oath during a bond hearing for Gardner.
Gardner and Fernandez are facing first-degree murder charges in the death of Gardner’s ex-husband, Jared Bridegan. Police have described it as a “murder-for-hire” to kill the father of four in February of 2022. Bridegan was shot to death after he stopped to move a tire from the roadway after dropping off his two oldest children at Gardner’s home in Jacksonville Beach.
Alan Mizrahi with the State Attorney’s Office 4th Judicial Circuit claimed in court there were no discovery violations and they would like to see the motion dismissed.
Judge London Kite said there will a hearing on the allegations of discovery violations on August 16.
Judge Kite also said in court there is an agreement between the state and defense that there will be a “content blind” review of the attorney-client privileged materials by a taint agent, meaning the agent will pull the privileged communications out of the returns for the Google Drives, iClouds and phones without opening or reading them.
As for spousal communications, the state said it had already read communications between Fernandez and Gardner since a previous court ruling had allowed them to do so. The defense says it has not waived spousal privilege and Judge Kite says she will issue an order that tells the taint agent to pull spousal communications and put those in a separate file since that issue will need further litigation.
First Coast News will continue to follow this case as it proceeds toward a trial.