Fernandez's Prosecutor Finished Closing With One Line

**Tony Brueski** (0:01)
This is Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski.

**Tony Brueski** (0:11)
The defense called two witnesses on day seven of Mario Fernandez murder trial in Jacksonville. The murder trial, it focuses on Jared Bridegate and his involvement in it. He's up first, Shanna Gardner is up next, and will of course be following that for you. It's like the amuse-bouche, if you will. The appetizer of the trials, although very real consequences that will affect Mario for the rest of his life, depending on what the jury decides. And I'm curious to get your thoughts in the comment section on Substack and YouTube, if you're not already taking our show with you on the road or in your AirPods or whatever. I do highly suggest taking the audio version with you. The link is right there. The QR code is on the screen. I'll take it to our link tree where you can pick your favorite podcast player, whether it's Android or Apple, and take us along. We do appreciate that. All right.
So, big day, day seven, and pretty much the end of his trial, as we get here, as it goes to a jury. Two school teachers from the Discovery School in Jacksonville Beach both said Fernandez was an involved parent who showed up to school events, attended conferences, and helped raise the children. Me and Shanna Gardner shared custody of with Jared Breidegand, and the defense rested.
That's a defense that's betting that the prosecution did not lay enough ground for a conviction, or they just know nothing we are going to say is going to improve the odds. One of those teachers, Lauren Meredith, had also met Breidegand. She described him at a school open house as almost condescending, asking what was so special about the school. Meredith testified that after Fernandez and Gardner began separating, Fernandez stopped doing anything with the children. Gardner pulled the kids from the school and moved them to Washington State a few months after Breidegand was killed. That was the defense entire case. Two character witnesses and a portrait of a family that functioned until it fell apart. Judge London Kite brought Fernandez before the bench and walked him through his rights. She explained the presumption of innocence, the state's burden of proof and his right to remain silent.
She asked what he wanted to do. Fernandez told the judge he did not want to testify. The decision, he said, was his alone. Both sides delivered closing arguments the same afternoon. The prosecution got a rebuttal. Jury instructions are on the way now. Then deliberations. Seven days of testimony ended with two lawyers standing in front of 12 people and asked them to believe completely different versions of the same evidence. Where do you stand on this? Your thoughts I'd love in the comment section on Substack and YouTube. Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler opened the prosecution's closing with three words on the screen, motive, means and opportunity. Henry Tenon, the alleged gunman, had none of them. Stifler told the jury, Fernandez, the man actually on trial, had all three. Tenon had never met Breidgen. He had no stake in the custody dispute, no financial interest in Gardner's trust, no connection to the victim's family. The only link between the man who allegedly pulled the trigger and the man who died was Mario Fernandez. The sharpest collision came over money. Defense Attorney Jesse Dreicer told the jury he almost fell out of his chair during the prosecutions closing that morning. He said Stifler had told the jury that Fernandez transferred fifty thousand dollars from ShannaGardner's account to his personal account a week after Breidgen's death. Dreicer said it didn't happen. He walked the jury back through the financial testimony from Detective Chris Johns. The records Dreicer said showed only two small transfers, not a fifty grand move. He reminded them that Johns, under cross-examination, confirmed he couldn't say the money went to Fernandez. Whether the jury heard Stifler say what Dreicer quoted her as saying, and whether the financial exploits support one version or the other, is now a question twelve people will answer with those records sitting in front of them. The second collision was structural. Stifler's closing built the prosecution's case two ways. In one stretch, she told the jury that evidence showed Fernandez got into Tenon's blue F-150 and showed the gunman where to go. In another, she described Fernandez as the architect of crime, the kind of man who hires people and keeps his distance. Dreicer asked the jury directly, Which is it? Was Fernandez in the truck or is he the architect who never gets his hands dirty? Both theories can't be true, Dreicer said. The reason the prosecution offered both is that they don't actually know what happened. They don't know who was in the truck with Tenon. They don't know the mechanics of how the killing was arranged. The prosecution's answer came in rebuttal. Assistant State Attorney Alan Mizrahi told the jury that nobody saw Tenon do it either. There were no eyewitnesses to the crime at all.