Text messages and an investigator’s testimony about their alleged significance were center stage Wednesday at a bond hearing in Florida for an ex-wife accused of plotting the murder of her ex-husband, Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan.
The messages between 37-year-old Shanna Gardner and a friend, identified in court as Kim Jensen, went back as far as 2015 and showed the two laughing and hoping for Bridegan’s death, even using the purported code words “casserole” and “funeral potatoes” and wondering whether anyone out there could make “someone disappear,” like a “magic” act.
Jacksonville Beach Police Department Detective Christopher Johns took the stand and explained in Judge London Kite’s courtroom that Gardner and her friend gleefully discussed the prospect of Bridegan falling off the face of the earth.
During the hearing, aired in full by First Coast News, the prosecution peppered a detective with questions about about texts between Gardner and Jensen hoping for Bridgean’s death.
“I would happily watch them give him the lethal injection,” Gardner said in one May 2015 text thread, to which Jensen replied: “If there was a crime of being an a—hole, he’d get the death penalty!”
In another exchange the same month, Gardner laughing together about making a “mean casserole,” referencing”funeral potatoes” and again hoping for the disappearance of Bridegan.
In yet another exchange from the same month, Gardner said she was “still tying to send stupid to prison.”
“If I can’t make a casserole, prison is the next best option,” Jensen answered, the texts show, “I could see you and stupid taking a road trip next year.”
“Maybe a road trip that he disappears from… loll,” said Gardner.
“Casserole!” Jensen declared.
Gardner then wished that Bridegan would “lay a hand on” her so that “Matt will make him disappear.”
“Who’s he kidding? We’ll be dancing in the streets when he’s gone!” Jensen said, using the word when not if.
“Oh I am hoping so badly for a casserole party!!” Gardner said.
In 2016, Gardner texted: “Is it too late to get a hitman? I’m serious.”
“I know Sue’s husband knows people, lol,” Jensen allegedly said.
In response, Gardner said “[i]t gives me such great pleasure imagining slitting his throAt” and “I’m not even joking. I want him gone.”
The detective said that the exchange about “Sue’s husband” wasn’t idle talk because Jensen simultaneously contacted that individual looking for a magician that could orchestrate the disappearing act.
“So, while this conversation was going on, Kim Jensen reaches out to the person they’re referring to and asks if she knows anyone who can do magic, i.e., make someone disappear,” Johns testified, adding that Jensen confirmed to him she reached out to that individual based on her text exchange with Gardner.
On Feb. 16, 2022, several years later, Jared Bridegan, at 33, was “gunned down in cold blood” in the street at night after stopping his SUV to remove a tire that authorities believe was planted in the road.
Investigators have said that Gardner and her since estranged second husband Mario Enrique Fernandez Saldana, 36, conspired to murder Bridegan with the help of Fernandez Saldana’s former tenant, 63-year-old Henry Tenon, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder as the hired gunman in Bridegan’s death.
On the night Bridegan was shot and killed, he had a routine weekly dinner with his twins, then 9, and with a 2-year-old daughter he shared with his second wife Kirsten Bridegan, according to authorities. After their meal, he dropped the twins off at Shanna Gardner’s home before heading home with his younger daughter.
One the drive home, Bridegan got out of his SUV to remove a tire in the road and was fatally shot, police said. His 2-year-old daughter was in the back seat of the SUV during the shooting.
An affidavit said that gunman Tenon and Fernandez Saldana had “35 phone contacts” in February 2022, “30” in March 2022, and “5-9” in May and June 2022. Investigators claimed to discover in bank records that Fernandez Saldana gave Tenon three handwritten checks.
The twin children were with Gardner when she was arrested on Aug. 17, 2023, in West Richland, Washington, this after she she had already gone on record in the media claiming that she had nothing to do with her ex’s murder and that she had “no idea” who might have done it.
#BREAKING: Jared Bridegan’s ex-wife, Shanna Gardner-Fernandez, has been arrested and indicted on first-degree murder in his death. @SAO4Florida prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Here she is last June telling @ActionNewsJax she had nothing to do with his murder. pic.twitter.com/D6rh3Qo2Cu
— Ben Ryan (@BenRyanANJax) August 17, 2023
Following her arrest months later, Gardner lawyered up in a major way by hiring Casey Anthony attorney Jose Baez.
Baez attempted to poke holes in the investigation Wednesday, grilling the detective about his actions and omissions.
“There was a section with the alleged co-conspirator, K.J., and then her communicating with Sue — excuse me, another woman by the name of Susan Lee,” Baez began, pausing and taking off his glasses. “Now, you never spoke to Susan Lee did you?”
“I believe one of my colleagues did,” the detective answered.
“Are you aware that there are no interviews or statements in the discovery of law enforcement speaking to Susan Lee?” Baez asked.
“So, you’re the lead detective in this case and you have text messages where they’re allegedly looking for a hitman and they’re texting someone — you’ve got it right there in black and white — that they’re texting a potential suitor for this hitman and you never go and talk to the person who is the alleged person who they went to go looking for a hitman?” the defense attorney pressed further.
“I believe the time we were looking to locate her, her phone number had changed and we did not have a good address for her, so we were not able to contact her,” the detective said.
As of Thursday, Gardner remains in the custody of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office without bond. The judge has not yet issued an order on the latest defense arguments requesting a bond.
The post ‘We’ll be dancing in the streets when he’s gone!’: Texts show ex-wife and friend laughing, hoping for death of Microsoft exec ‘gunned down in cold blood’ first appeared on Law & Crime.
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Author: Matt Naham
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