Attorneys will face off over the defense’s motion to disqualify the State Attorney’s Office Fourth Judicial Circuit.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — An important hearing will take place Thursday afternoon in the murder trial of Shanna Gardner and Mario Fernandez-Saldana. Both are facing first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation to commit a capital felony and child abuse charges in the death of Gardner’s ex-husband, Jared Bridegan.
Bridegan was killed in February 2022 in what investigators have described as a murder-for-hire plot in Jacksonville Beach. The child abuse charge is related to the fact that Bridegan’s daughter from his second marriage, Bexley, was in the backseat of his car during his murder.
On Thursday, the two defense teams will be arguing over two specific pieces of communication they say falls under attorney-client privilege, but the State Attorney’s Office says it does not. Also, the defense teams are arguing for the entire State Attorney’s Office Fourth Judicial Circuit to be removed from the case for the way it handled attorney-client privileged communications.
In court filings, the defense teams for Gardner and Fernandez allege that when their Apple devices were seized and iCloud and Google drives were downloaded, their attorneys notified prosecutors and investigators that privileged communications were on there. The prosecution established a “taint team” that was supposed to remove all attorney-client privileged communications before prosecutors and investigators could review the information.
The defense alleges that the “taint team” used was a single United States Secret Service agent who had no training in that specific area, had no protocol to follow and that when he had questions, he would contact the lead prosecutor for advice.
Gardner’s attorneys also filed a motion on Monday to dismiss the indictment against her calling the State Attorney’s Office conduct “patently improper” and “egregious.”
Both Gardner and Fernandez have plead not guilty to all charges.
The hearing is set to begin at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday.
