Last defendant in Jared Bridegan murder-for-hire case set for 2027 trial

Henry Tenon’s trial now sits nearly a year away, turning the final act in the Jared Bridegan murder-for-hire case into another long wait for the family and for everyone tracking the prosecution. After a June 17 hearing in Jacksonville, the court set Tenon for March 29, 2027, a date that keeps the last defendant in the case on a separate clock from the others.

Tenon, 65, is charged with first-degree murder, child abuse, conspiracy to commit murder, accessory after the fact and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The delay matters because the case is already unfolding in stages: Shanna Gardner and Mario Fernandez Saldana, who are charged in the same alleged murder-for-hire scheme, have pleaded not guilty and are still expected to be tried first, with their trials set for Aug. 3, 2026. The judge cited defense counsel availability and school-calendar issues in setting Tenon’s later date.

Bridegan was 33 when he was shot and killed on Feb. 16, 2022, in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, after dropping off two of his children at his ex-wife’s home. Prosecutors say his youngest daughter was in the car and witnessed the shooting, a detail that has made the case especially hard to shake and one reason it has stayed so deeply embedded in true-crime circles. Bridegan was a Microsoft senior design manager and father of four.

The prosecution’s theory is that the killing was not a sudden act of violence but a murder-for-hire plot that began in November 2021. Tenon was reportedly the first person charged in the case, and his path has already shifted once: he initially pleaded guilty as part of an agreement to testify, then later withdrew that plea and entered a not guilty plea. That reversal left the alleged gunman standing at the center of the final trial, but not yet in front of a jury.

The paper trail has only widened the case. In September 2025, prosecutors released new discovery materials, including 911 calls, body-camera footage, interviews and other records that added more texture to the chaotic scene and early investigation. In December 2024, a court kept Bridegan’s twin children with their maternal grandparents in Washington state, over objections from Kirsten Bridegan, who said the arrangement was not what Jared would have wanted.

With Gardner and Fernandez Saldana moving first and Tenon pushed to 2027, the case remains split into layers. The public may get one verdict before another, but the full accounting of who planned the killing and who carried it out will have to wait for the last trial.