Ex-wife arrested in murder of Microsoft top executive

The ex-wife of a Florida Microsoft executive who was gunned down in front of his 2-year-old daughter last year has been arrested in Washington state and charged in connection with the killing — and prosecutors said they plan to seek the death penalty in the case.

Long a suspect in the father of four Jared Bridegan’s brutal Jacksonville Beach slaying, the ex-wife, Shanna Gardner-Fernandez was collared after a grand jury handed down a first-degree murder indictment Thursday morning.

“Shanna Gardner’s indictment acknowledges her central and key role in the cold, calculated and premeditated murder of Jared Bridegan,” State Attorney Melissa Nelson said at a press conference after her arrest.

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The suspect, Shanna Gardner who was arrested on Thursday in West Richland, Washington, has been indicted for first-degree murder of her husband, Jared Bridegan, in what Florida prosecutors called the “cold, calculated and premeditated murder” of the father of four.

Gardner was indicted by a grand jury for first-degree murder, a capital felony, as well as conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and child abuse, prosecutors said.

Bridegan who was 33 at the time he was murdered, was shot and killed in the middle of a Jacksonville Beach.

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The Jacksonville Beach Police Department say Bridegan was driving his then-2-year-old daughter in February 2022 when he came upon a tire blocking his path. When he stepped out of the car, authorities said he was ambushed and murdered.

Though Gardner has denied any involvement in her ex-husband’s murder, her current husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, was indicted by a grand jury on multiple charges, including first-degree murder, five months ago.

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“This investigation has uncovered the truth of Jared’s murder,” State Attorney Melissa Nelson, who is prosecuting the case, said during a press briefing Thursday.

“Shanna Gardner’s indictment acknowledges her central and key role in the cold, calculated and premeditated murder of Jared Bridegan.”