A Florida jury has convicted Mario Fernandez Saldana of first-degree murder in the 2022 ambush killing of Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan.
The jury also found Saldana guilty of solicitation to commit a capital felony. Investigators said Bridegan, 33, was shot to death at close range in February 2022 in Jacksonville Beach after stopping his car to move a tire that had been placed in the middle of a dark road.
Bridegan's 2-year-old daughter was in the back seat of the vehicle during the shooting but was unharmed. Prosecutors argued that the scene was a deliberate set-up, stemming from a bitter custody dispute involving Bridegan's ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, and her husband, Fernandez Saldana.
Prosecutors allege that Fernandez Saldana and Gardner hired Henry Tenon as the gunman. Tenon had initially pleaded guilty before rescinding that plea. Fernandez Saldana was arrested in March 2023, and Gardner was arrested in August of the same year. Both were indicted on charges in connection with Bridegan's killing, but a judge ruled they would be tried separately.
Juries were shown footage of a black Volkswagen Atlas near the scene, a figure prosecutors identified as the suspect fleeing, and audio from nearby cameras that captured the gunshots.