Florida asks for return of Tri-Cities mother accused in plot to kill Microsoft exec
Florida has asked for a West Richland mother to be returned to the state face charges that she helped plan the murder of her ex-husband.
Florida’s governor’s office has filed paperwork to bring Shanna Gardner, 36, back to the state she called home until early 2023.
She is accused of being part of a murder-for-hire plot to kill Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan.
Deputy Prosecutor Terry Bloor said during a Thursday hearing that the paperwork was issued by Florida on Wednesday. Washington’s governor’s office is now waiting to receive the documents.
Gardner has been in the Benton County jail for nearly a month after being arrested at her $1 million West Richland home.
The case has garnered national attention and drew several out-of-town news outlets, including Fox and Court TV, to cover Thursday’s hearing in Benton County Superior Court in Kennewick.
Florida prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty for Gardner and her husband Mario Fernandez-Saldana. Both are charged in the plot.
The two are accused of orchestrating an elaborate scheme to kill Bridegan in February 2022.
They have both been indicted on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, solicitation to commit first-degree murder and child abuse.
Gardner and Bridegan met while she was visiting a friend in Florida in 2009 and married the next year in Salt Lake City, according to The Florida Times-Union. But after a troubled relationship they filed for divorce in 2015.
The divorce paperwork was filled with hundreds of accusations, but the couple ended up sharing custody of their children.
Prosecutors with Florida’s Forth Judicial Circuit claim Gardner and Fernandez-Saldana started planning Bridegan’s murder sometime after they met at a CrossFit gym in 2018.
Fernandez-Saldana allegedly recruited Henry Tennon, who rented property from him, to shoot Bridegan.
On Feb. 16, 2022, Bridegan dropped off their twins at Gardner’s house and was driving home with a 2-year-old daughter from another relationship.
Bridegan was shot when he stopped to move a tire out of the middle of the street where he was driving, according to a state attorney’s release.
Tennon pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for his role in the shooting.