Murder-for-hire trial kicks off over ex-wife’s alleged role in Microsoft exec’s ambush

Prosecutors opened the murder-for-hire trial of Mario Fernandez Saldana, charged with arranging the killing of Jared Bridegan, a Microsoft design manager, on a Jacksonville Beach road with Bridegan’s young daughter in the back seat; the case centers on an alleged plot by Bridegan’s ex-wife Shanna Gardner and her husband amid years of bitter divorce disputes over religion and parenting, with a key witness who previously pleaded guilty but later withdrew his plea.