The State Attorney's Office has officially consolidated the cases of Shanna Gardner and Henry Tenon, who will now go to trial together next year.
The move also comes with a new indictment filed Sept. 17 reducing the number of charges against each in the 2022 murder of Gardner's ex-husband, Jared Bridegan, after dropping off their shared-custody children at her Jacksonville Beach home.
Gardner is charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Charges of solicitation to commit a capital felony and child abuse have been dropped/abandoned.
Tenon is charged of with first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a felon. His child abuse charge also was dropped/abandoned. The latter was initially included due to Bridegan's 2-year-daughter
being in his car before he got out and was gunned down.
Tenon had previously pleaded guilty to being the triggerman but then recanted his testimony and was granted a new trial by Judge London Kite.
It's unclear when the trial will be, but Gardner's jury selection had recently been scheduled to begin on May 3 ― Tenon's was slotted for March 22.
This also follows motions by both the State Attorney's Office and widow Kirsten Bridegan to have Kite disqualified from the trial, which the judge swiftly quashed.
Gardner had remarried Mario Fernandez Saldana, who already has been found guilty in the the murder-for-hire plot. But no sooner that he was convicted and Gardner was set to go to trial, he was charged with new lewd and lascivious offensesthat further delayed the case.
Scott Butler has been an editor/reporter specializing in public safety coverage for 26 years with The Florida Times-Union. He can be reached at sbutler@jacksonville.com.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: More developments evolve in Jared Bridegan murder trial
