The fatal shooting of a Microsoft design manager on a dark Florida road was a “targeted ambush” hatched by his ex-wife and her husband, following years of post-marriage strife over religion and how to raise twin children, a prosecutor told jurors Monday.
Jared Bridegan, 33, was killed in Jacksonville Beach in 2022 when he got out of his vehicle to remove a tire that was placed in the road while his 2-year-old daughter from a second marriage was strapped in her car seat.
More than four years later, Mario Fernandez Saldana, 38, is on trial in Duval County court for first-degree murder and solicitation of murder. He’s accused of arranging Bridegan’s death by hiring a gunman. Shanna Gardner, 39, faces her own trial in September.
“The killer was a stranger to Jared Bridegan. The murder was personal,” Assistant State Attorney Christina Simak Stifler said.
But defense attorney James Hill told the jury that Fernandez Saldana, an Army veteran, had no desire to get rid of Bridegan and his actions shortly after the killing — a road trip to Pennsylvania and back — didn’t resemble that of a criminal architect “running from the law.”
“He had access to a lot of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Hill acknowledged, referring to his wife's trust fund. “He could have fled the country.”
In her opening remarks, Stifler traced the bitter relationship between Bridegan and Gardner, the execution-style killing and the difficulty of trying to solve a shocking homicide with no witnesses. The victim, she said, had no obvious enemies and was a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Bridegan and Gardner were divorced in 2015. The end of the marriage, however, led to years of acrimony about how to jointly raise their twins, from religion to doctor's appointments and even school conferences, Stifler said.
She said Gardner did not want her children involved with the Mormon church.
“They fought over everything. ... It was nasty. It was petty. It was not good on both sides,” the prosecutor said of the relationship.
Bridegan remarried and had two more children. Gardner, meanwhile, married Fernandez Saldana, who was a maintenance man at a gym where she worked out.
Bridegan was attacked shortly after returning 9-year-old twins to Gardner’s home, following a regular “date night” with their children.
He was driving home to St. Augustine with one of two children he had with wife Kirsten when he stopped to remove a tire from the road. The child later recalled hearing “loud booms” and asking, “Are police going to help my daddy?” Stifler said.
A few months later, she said, police discovered a lead “that blew the case open” — a tire at a rental property owned by Fernandez Saldana. Investigators found the tire was similar to another tire that blocked Bridegan's Volkswagen Atlas on his drive.
Police matched DNA on those tires to Henry Tenon, a former tenant with a criminal record and financial problems. Records revealed that he was paid $10,000 by Fernandez Saldana after the murder, though the checks said the work was for landscaping, roof repair and a business idea.
“Mario Fernandez has hired him to do work, not murder,” Hill told the jury, disputing anything nefarious.
Tenon, 65, was charged as the gunman who shot Bridegan. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and had agreed to testify against Fernandez Saldana. But he withdrew the plea earlier this year and will get his own trial in 2027.
Stifler said Gardner, who was from a wealthy family, relocated to Washington state with her children after Bridegan's death. Fernandez Saldana, meanwhile, moved to Orlando.
“Ms. Gardner got what she wanted: full control over her children and the freedom to move out of Jacksonville, Florida,” the prosecutor said.
Bridegan was chief technology officer at Utah-based Clean Simple Eats before working at Microsoft, according to his obituary.
Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler walks out at lunch recess after opening statements in the trial of Mario Fernandez Saldana at the Duval County Courthouse on Monday, Aug. 17, 2026, in Jacksonville, Fla. (Corey Perrine/The Florida Times-Union via AP, Pool)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Opening statements began Monday in the trial of a man accused of orchestrating the killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, the start of weeks of testimony revisiting what happened on a Las Vegas night nearly 30 years ago.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, is charged with murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang in Shakur's death. He pleaded not guilty, but if convicted, faces life in prison.
Davis entered the courtroom in a blue suit and tie and scanned the audience to see who was there before sitting next to his lawyer Michael Sanft once the jury was sworn in and seated.
Members of Shakur’s family, including his stepbrother Maurice “Mopreme” Shakur, sat quietly in the front row of the courtroom behind prosecutors.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal showed jurors a picture of the Mike Tyson fight with the date “September 7, 1996” and showed video of Shakur’s entourage attacking Davis’ nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson.
“Let’s be clear, Duane Davis did not pull the trigger. But he did plan the shooting in retaliation of the beating of his nephew, Palal said. “Remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself."
The long-unsolved drive-by shooting gripped the hip-hop community, partly because no one was charged until Davis was indicted in 2023.
Shakur remains a cultural icon and is considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time, despite dying at 25. He was nominated for six Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.
In recent years, he received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, had a street in Oakland named in his honor and inspired a character in the upcoming video game "Stranger than Heaven.”
A few fans lined up early Monday for a coveted seat in the courthouse to watch the first day of testimony. Din Malone took a bus from Denver and hopes to stay for the entire trial.
“As a brother and a fan, I felt like he talked through his music,” said Malone, who wore a Tupac shirt and played Shakur’s music from his phone while waiting to get inside.
Over the course of the trial, which could span weeks, prosecutors plan to call 35 to 45 potential witnesses, and the defense will call only a handful to testify.
Maurice Shakur recently told The Associated Press that sitting through the trial will be retraumatizing for the family, but it's important to be there.
“We’re gonna stand by Pac as we always have,” he said.
Along with Shakur's family, friends and fans traveled to Las Vegas to show their support during jury selection.
Darryl Harper, a veteran music producer who collaborated with Shakur at Death Row Records on songs released after the 1996 shooting, said he booked a plane ticket as soon as the latest trial date was set.
“He became a personal friend of mine as I worked with him almost every day of his last days here,” said Harper, who flew in from his home in Georgia.
Shakur's cousins Kendrick Lesane and William Lesane flew in from Atlanta last week. William Lesane said he wants someone held accountable.
“For me, justice has long left the station 30 years ago,” he said.
The gunfire that killed Shakur came from a white Cadillac that Davis was riding in with three others, all who have since died.
In 2008, Davis spoke to investigators looking into the deaths of Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., born Christopher Wallace. During the investigation, Davis was under an agreement that what he said about Shakur's killing couldn't be used against him. But nearly 10 years later, Davis published a book with those details and participated in media interviews in which he laid out his role in the shooting.
The book and his public statements revived the Las Vegas investigation and became key pieces of evidence, prosecutors say.
"Had he decided to never write the book, he would not, probably, have ever been prosecuted for the crime,” prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo recently said.
Sanft says Davis co-authored the book “Compton Street Legend” to make money, not to tell the truth. He argues it's impossible to tell which parts — if any — Davis wrote and which parts author Yusuf Jah penned.
Jah, who is on the list of potential witnesses, recently told an investigator he didn't believe Davis fully read his own book, according to court documents.
Prosecutors say the book is sensationalized but that they'll show “what is true, what is exaggeration, and what is an outright lie,” they wrote in court documents.
Associated Press journalists Ty ONeil in Las Vegas and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.
Duane Davis, left, appears in court with his attorney Michael Sanft during opening arguments in his murder trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, at Clark County District Court Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026. (Steve Marcus/Pool via AP)
Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal gives an opening statement during the Duane Davis murder trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, at Clark County District Court Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026. (Steve Marcus/Pool Photo via AP)
Duane Davis appears in court during opening arguments for his murder trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, at Clark County District Court Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026. (Steve Marcus/Pool Photo via AP)
People walk from the Regional Justice Center ahead of opening statements in the murder trial of Duane Davis, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Duane Davis enters the courtroom after a break in the third day of jury selection in his murder trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, at Clark County District Court Regional Justice Center on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, in Las Vegas. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP, Pool)
Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal questions a prospective juror during the third day of jury selection in Duane Davis murder trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, at Clark County District Court Regional Justice Center on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, in Las Vegas. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP, Pool)
Chief Deputy District Attorneys Marc DiGiacomo, left, and Binu Palal confer during the third day of jury selection in the Duane Davis murder trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, at Clark County District Court Regional Justice Center on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, in Las Vegas. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP, Pool)
Duane Davis appears in court during the third day of jury selection in his murder trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, at Clark County District Court Regional Justice Center on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, in Las Vegas. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP, Pool)
