A Florida man was arrested and charged Wednesday for murdering a Microsoft executive nearly a year ago.
Henry Tenon, 61, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder, second-degree murder, and accessory after the fact to a capital felony, as well as child abuse, People Magazine reported. The charges relate to the February 16, 2022, murder of Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan, 33, who was shot and killed in front of his two-year-old daughter.
“We know that Henry Tenon did not act alone,” State Attorney Melissa Nelson said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Nelson added that prosecutors are presenting his case to a grand jury on Thursday “in order to seek an indictment for first-degree murder.”
Bridegan was driving down a road in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, when he stopped his vehicle and stepped out to remove an abandoned tire from the middle of the road. He was then shot multiple times at close range and left for dead.
“When officers got on the scene, they found the vehicle with the flashers on, and there was a tire up in front of his vehicle in the roadway,” Jacksonville Beach Police Department Sgt. Tonya Tator told People, adding that the detective in charge “felt it was targeted because of the tire being in the road forcing someone to stop.”
“He was gunned down in cold blood,” Jacksonville Beach Police Chief Gene Paul Smith said at the press conference, according to People. “This was a planned and targeted ambush and murder. The ruthless homicide has pained our community.”
Bridegan’s two-year-old daughter Bexley was inside his vehicle when the shooting occurred but was unharmed.
The murder happened just after Bridegan had dropped his twins off at his ex-wife’s house, leading some to question whether the ex-wife, Shana Gardner-Fernandez, was involved.
Following the arrest announcement, Bridegan’s widow, Kirsten, told Fox News that she was “not surprised to be honest,” after learning that Tenon was renting a home from Gardner-Fernandez’s second husband, Mario Fernandez, when Bridegan was shot.
“They charged him with conspiracy. That means there are more people,” Kirsten said in an interview with Fox. “This was orchestrated, this was planned and this was specific to Jared.”
A law enforcement source told the outlet that Gardner-Fernandez and Fernandez remain suspects in Bridegan’s murder.
Bridegan and Gardner-Fernandez had been locked in litigation since their split in 2016, focusing on finances and custody of their now 10-year-old twins. Kirsten told Fox that Gardner-Fernandez refuses to let the twins see their younger siblings, Bexley, who is now 3, and 1-year-old London.
“Bexley asks about her big brother and her big sister, and I just say, ‘mom has tried,’” Kirsten said, adding, “I know they’re hurting.”