Man convicted in Microsoft exec's murder in plot allegedly involving ex-wife
Prosecutors believe Jared Bridegan was killed because of ongoing strife with his former wife over the parenting of their twins.
A man accused of arranging the fatal shooting of a Microsoft design manager on a Florida road was convicted Wednesday in a murder-for-hire scheme fueled by a stormy child custody arrangement between the victim and his wealthy ex-wife.
Jared Bridegan was shot four years ago after he got out of his SUV to remove a tire from a road in Jacksonville Beach. The attack stumped police for months as they struggled to understand why someone with no apparent enemies would be killed while his daughter sat nearby in her car seat.
Mario Fernandez Saldana, 38, was convicted on Wednesday of first-degree murder and solicitation of murder after nearly four hours of jury deliberation, according to CBS affiliate WJAX-TV. He's married to Bridegan's former wife, Shanna Gardner, whose trial is set to start in September.
Prosecutors argued that Bridegan was killed in a "targeted ambush" hatched by Gardner and Saldana, following years of post-marriage strife over religion and how to raise twin children. The victim was driving home with his 2-year-old daughter, Bexley, after having dinner with his twins.
Bridegan was "unarmed, unaware, exposed, vulnerable. He couldn't have known, on that cold asphalt in February of 2022, the architects of his murder had been making preparations for his death for months," Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler said during closing arguments.