JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The high-profile attorney who’s now representing a former Jacksonville Beach resident accused in the murder-for-hire plot of her ex-husband is demanding all the state’s evidence in the case in one of his first court filings.
Attorney Jose Baez, who also represented Orlando mother Casey Anthony and NFL player Aaron Hernandez in their trials, filed a demand for discovery in the case against Shanna Gardner.
Baez officially announced on Wednesday that he was taking Gardner’s case. The 36-year-old and her current husband Mario Fernandez are facing charges of first-degree murder for the shooting death of Gardner’s ex-husband Jared Bridegan.
Baez requested the names of everyone relevant to the case, any written or recorded statements, DNA evidence, and details of a plea agreement the prosecution made with confessed gunman Henry Tenon.
Tenon confessed to shooting Bridegan in February 2022 and has agreed to testify against any codefendants.
Attorney Curtis Fallgatter, who is not associated with the case, said while Baez’s legal strategy isn’t crystal clear, he expects Baez to argue Gardner was unaware of the murder-for-hire plot.
“If I’m Mrs. Gardner, what I’m going to say is, ‘Well, I never talked to Tenon. I never knew who the guy was. Fernandez did that totally without my knowledge. I’m so embarrassed. I loved my ex-husband…I would never want the father of my child to be killed,’” Fallgatter said.
MORE: Shanna Gardner plotted to kill Jared Bridegan as far back as May 2015: indictment
Fallgater said that defense strategy might work with regard to Tenon, but he said it will be a far tougher defense if Fernandez decides to cooperate with the prosecution. Fernandez and Gardner married in 2018, after Gardner’s bitter divorce from Bridegan. Her indictment accused her of first plotting to kill Bridegan in 2015.
Fallgater expects the prosecution to pit Gardner and Fernandez against each other.
“It’s absolutely a given that the prosecution is going to try to attempt to get Fernandez to resolve his case so they have a second witness in the prosecution of Gardner,” he said.
Authorities said they have phone records to prove Tenon and Fernandez conspired in Bridegan’s murder, and payments in the form of checks from Fernandez to Tenon. What remains unclear is what evidence prosecutors have connecting Gardner directly to the murder-for-hire plot. Fallgater said even without evidence from discovery, Gardner’s attorney is already starting to build her defense.
“You can formulate some of your defense before you get all the state evidence, but it’s a mistake to finalize the defense strategies until you know what the evidence is. You’ve got to make sure that your strategy is consistent with the evidence,” Fallgatter said.
Gardner, who was recently extradited from Washington to Duval County, is expected to be arraigned on Friday where she will likely enter a not-guilty plea alongside Baez.
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