The ex-wife of slain Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan has been indicted for first-degree murder in what Florida prosecutors called the “cold, calculated and premeditated murder” of the father of four.
Shanna Gardner was indicted by a grand jury on Thursday for first-degree murder, a capital felony, as well as conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and child abuse, prosecutors said.
Bridegan, 33, was shot and killed in the middle of a Jacksonville Beach street last year in what authorities described as a targeted ambush.
Kirsten Bridegan and her daughter Bexley Bridegan, look at the flames on their candles during a vigil for Jared Bridegan, April 19, 2022, at South Beach Park and Sunshine Playground in Jacksonville Beach, Fla.
Florida Times-Union via USA Today Network, FILE
Gardner was arrested in West Richland, Washington, and will be extradited to Duval County, authorities said. Her last name has been previously reported as Gardner-Fernandez, though the indictment and prosecutors refer to her as Gardner.
Her attorney declined to comment to ABC News.
Gardner denied any involvement in her ex-husband’s murder last year during her only television interview.
“Any time divorce comes into any situation it’s messy,” she told Jacksonville station WJAX in July 2022.
“Even though we didn’t always get along, he was still the father of my kids,” she said.
Gardner is the third person to be charged in connection with the homicide.
Her current husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, was indicted by a grand jury on multiple charges, including first-degree murder, five months ago. Fernandez Saldana’s former tenant, Henry Tenon, was arrested earlier this year and is accused of pulling the trigger.
“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. “Henry Tenon did not act alone. Mario Fernandez did not plan alone, and Shanna Gardner’s indictment acknowledges her central and key role in the cold, calculated and premeditated murder of Jared Bridegan.”
Bridegan was driving his then-2-year-old daughter in Jacksonville Beach in February 2022 when he came upon a tire blocking his path