Bridegan Murder Trial: The Jury Learned WHO Knew First?!

**Tony Brueski** (0:10)
Detective Johns took the witness stand on day three of Mario Fernandez's murder trial in Jacksonville. Under cross-examination, he acknowledged no communication records connect Fernandez to Henry Tenon. Not a phone call, not a text, not a cell tower ping placing them together on the day Jared Bridegan was killed or during the alleged rehearsal drive. Fernandez of course is charged as the orchestrator of Bridegan's murder, not the gunman. The prosecution's case is a conspiracy. Two men allegedly working together, different places, different times. One directing, one shooting.
Proving that requires proving they coordinated. On day three, the evidence connecting them physically, at the same place, at the same time, did not arrive. And the defense would like you to make note of that, because, well, if they're not there at the same time, you know, arm around each other, holding hands as they fire the weapons or cock the gun. Well, that must mean something. It really doesn't. But the game's reasonable doubt. On February 16th of 2022, Bridegan stopped his car on a Jacksonville beach road to move a tire placed deliberately in his path. His two-year-old daughter was in the back seat. He stepped out of the vehicle and someone shot him. The state alleges Fernandez directed the killing through Tenon, motivated by a custody dispute between Bridegan and Fernandez's wife, Shanna Gardner Fernandez. Tenon initially pled guilty to second-degree murder, but later withdrew the plea. He faces his own trial in 2027 Tenon's DNA was recovered from the tire in the roadway. Kind of a big deal. He was a major contributor. It was on the truck keys in the steering wheel of the vehicle, the prosecution says, carried the gunman. The prosecution alleges Fernandez obtained the murder weapon through a man named Bigger Staff. Bigger Staff purchased a 10mm handgun in 2016 and later forfeited it after a felony conviction. He told investigators he no longer had the weapon. No evidence establishes that he gave it to Fernandez. At least not yet. The defense offered a different explanation for Fernandez's visit to Bigger Staff. Video recovered from Fernandez's phone showed him with Bigger Staff's wife. The prosecution needed those visits to be about a gun. The defense said they were personal. The Glock 10mm handguns were sold at Beaches Pawn Shop one month after the murder. Bridegan was killed with a 10mm round, the caliber matches and the timeline is suggestive. But no forensic connection links those weapons to the bullet that killed Bridegan, the murder weapon has never been recovered. Cell phone records show 10-inch device traveling from Potomac Drive to the Gymnastics Studio to the Ambush site. And back on January 29th, Fernandez phone placed him at his own property. And the records show no communication between the two devices. Johns connected the rehearsal theory, rests on inference.
ATF agent Glenn Farring testified about DNA recovered from shell casings at the murder scene. Casings carry biological material, sometimes from whoever loaded the ammunition. The DNA on the brass actually matched Jared Bridegan, the victim, not any of the alleged conspirators. The prosecution offered no explanation for how Bridegan's DNA ended up on ammunition, allegedly loaded by and fired by someone else, rather than, well, the bullet did travel through someone. Every exhibit the prosecution put in front of the jury to connect Fernandez to Tenon didn't really go anywhere. The prosecution's answer to that gap was testimony. What witnesses say Fernandez told them before and after the killing? Taylor Kutis, let's meet Taylor, identified via Zoom from Tennessee. She met Fernandez in 2013 at Vanderbilt University's ROTC program, where he was her drill sergeant. They had a brief relationship that ended in 2015 Kutis is a corporate sales trainer married to a military husband. Before Bridegan was killed, Fernandez told Kutis he had a special set of skills from his time in the army. He mentioned a contract with Gardner's family after the shooting. Fernandez described the murder to Kutis as a hit and run. But he took a calculated killing and repackaged it as a traffic accident. Kutis heard skills, a contract and a cover story in that order.
And she never called the enforcement. Maybe she didn't think much of it. Under cross-examination, Kutis acknowledged her recollections were not verbatim. She took no notes at the time. She learned details about the case from media coverage after Bridegan's death. The prosecution really needs her testimony because without it, no evidence really connects Fernandez to the killing. Her decision not to call police after hearing those words as part of her testimony, whether the prosecution wants it to be or not. Victor Quiroz also testified he met Fernandez in March of 22, one month after the killing. Quiroz had known Fernandez since 2010 through online gaming. Fernandez described Bridegan's death as a hit-and-run, the same phrase he used with Kutis.