Fernandez's Check to Jared Bridegan's Alleged Killer Said This

Mario Fernandez's defense team in the Jared Bridegan murder case has been winning before the trial started — charges dropped, death penalty gone, a key witness blocked from the stand, and the state's cooperating gunman withdrawing his plea deal entirely. Then prosecutors pulled the financial records.

Three handwritten checks from Fernandez's company to the alleged triggerman Henry Tenon total $10,000 and arrived after the murder. Two were issued on the same day in March 2022. The third, dated April 4, allegedly carried the memo "Kickstarter" and "Good luck!" on a $5,000 payment written seven weeks after Bridegan was ambushed on Sanctuary Boulevard.

Fernandez's attorneys say those checks paid for landscaping and roof repairs on a rental property and that no money changed hands before the crime. Phone records showing 35 calls between Fernandez and Tenon in February 2022, 30 in March, and continued contact into June form another pillar of the state's case. At a late-July hearing, prosecutor Alan Mizrahi disclosed that two people left the crime scene the night Bridegan was killed. One fled on foot, one drove a pickup truck. Tenon's DNA was on the tire. He was not driving.

A fellow inmate also alleges Fernandez described the conspiracy from inside the Duval County jail, identified his own role, named Gardner as the planner, and asked for help framing Kirsten Bridegan through letters mailed to reporters and law enforcement after release.

Fernandez has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and solicitation. Jury selection began August 10 and trial is set to begin August 17. Gardner's trial follows at month's end. Tenon faces his own trial in March 2027.

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