Updated

Updated · Fox News · Aug 18

Kirsten Bridegan Testifies on Final Call in 2022 Ambush Trial of Mario Fernandez Saldana

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Aug 18

Kirsten Bridegan Testifies on Final Call in 2022 Ambush Trial of Mario Fernandez Saldana

Q: What explosive secrets hide on the witness's cellphone that the defense fought to access before the 2026 trial?

They are not publicly known. The material on the witness’s phone — identified in later reporting as Jared Bridegan’s widow, Kirsten Bridegan — was ordered reviewed under seal, and the court records made available so far do not describe any “explosive secrets” found on it. What is clear is that Shanna Gardner’s defense fought to subpoena limited evidence from Kirsten Bridegan’s cellphone shortly before Gardner’s 2026 trial. Prosecutors argued the request was irrelevant and amounted to harassment, while the defense said the contents could be important for cross-examination and that explaining more in open court would expose trial strategy. Judge London Kite allowed an amended request, and the review was to proceed under seal unless appealed. Because the evidence remains sealed, there has been no verified public disclosure of messages, photos, call logs or other data showing what, if anything, the defense believed could help undermine Kirsten Bridegan’s testimony or support Gardner’s case. So the accurate answer is that, based on public reporting, no one outside the sealed proceedings knows what was on the phone. Any claim that it contained specific damaging revelations would go beyond the evidence currently available.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Aug 18

Kirsten Bridegan told jurors she heard an unusual silence on her husband Jared Bridegan’s last phone call moments before the 2022 roadside shooting in Jacksonville Beach.
At Mario Fernandez Saldana’s trial, she described a bitter co-parenting relationship with Bridegan’s ex-wife Shanna Gardner-Fernandez, with disputes over custody, school, medical costs and religion.
Prosecutors say that years-long conflict fueled a murder-for-hire plot in which Fernandez Saldana helped plan and finance the killing and Henry Tenon was the gunman.
Fernandez Saldana has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers argue prosecutors cannot prove he solicited or intended Bridegan’s death and have no physical or forensic evidence placing him at the scene.
The case has produced 3 arrests and separate trials after Tenon withdrew a cooperation plea; Gardner-Fernandez’s trial is scheduled for September and Tenon’s for March 2027.