JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Shanna Gardner and her defense team appeared in Duval County court Thursday afternoon. She and her second husband, Mario Fernandez-Saldana, are accused of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of her ex-husband, Jared Bridegan.
In the hearing, the court was expected to hear testimony from an agent, Lindsey Butler, from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) who saw one attorney-client privileged message during the investigation.
Gardner's defense team says Butler had access to over 800,000 text messages Gardner sent from 2016-2022, so they are seeking information about what specific message she read.
But the agent did not testify. Defense attorney, Patrick Korody, told the court the ATF would only allow Butler to testify if an ATF attorney was present as well. Korody said to have another person from the state hear what was in the message would be a further violation of attorney-client privilege for Gardner.
"We are talking about the most sacred privileges of privileges. We are talking about my client who is facing the death penalty and I can't just roll over and agree that we are going to have a gentleman's handshake that he is going to do this the right way. That happened 15 months ago in a courtroom in this courthouse with different attorneys, with the state and they made a handshake agreement that they were going to have a taint team and they were going to do it right and now we know how that worked. So I hope the court understands that there is a lot of trepidation from the defense side that this is going to be done right," Patrick Korody told the court.
Korody, the state attorney's office and Judge London Kite spent much of the hearing discussing various ways to remedy the situation and find a path forward to establish what was seen in the message. Nothing definitive was decided in regards to the message, but both the defense and the state said they still want to move forward with the April 19th hearing on the motion to disqualify the State Attorney's Office Fourth Judicial Circuit.
Those hearings will happen next week for both Gardner and Fernandez on their motions to disqualify the State Attorney's Office Fourth Judicial Circuit from the case over allegations of mishandling attorney-client privileged materials.
Bridegan was murdered in February 2022 after dropping off his twins at Gardner's Jacksonville Beach home. Investigators say it was a "murder-for-hire" plot and when Bridegan stopped to move a tire that was placed in the road, he was shot multiple times. His two-year-old daughter from his second marriage was in the car at the time, but was unharmed.
Gardner and Fernandez have both plead not guilty.