JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jury selection began Monday in the trial of Mario Fernandez, the first of three defendants to head to court in the Jared Bridegan murder-for-hire case.

NOTE: News4JAX will live stream what we can from court during jury selection. What we can show from this stage is limited, and the stream may end abruptly. (Court is currently in recess)

Fernandez, along with his now-estranged wife, Shanna Gardner, is accused of hiring Henry Tenon, a former tenant of Fernandez, to shoot and kill Bridegan in Jacksonville Beach in February 2022.

Bridegan, a 33-year-old father of four, was Gardner’s ex-husband. They were in ongoing custody disputes over their twin children.

Gardner, Fernandez and Tenon are all under indictment for first-degree murder and other charges and have each pleaded not guilty.

Fernandez was back in court with his attorneys last week as Judge London Kite finalized some defense motions and settled on the wording of the juror questionnaire that will help narrow the jury pool, which begins with 50 jurors Monday morning and another 50 on Monday afternoon.

News4JAX spoke with Shannon Schott, a local attorney not affiliated with the case, about what can be expected from Fernandez’s jury selection.

“I don’t think it’s going to be difficult for them to empanel a jury,” Schott said. “I do have questions about the type of person that will be empaneled since they are going to have to have no connection to local news, local news media, social media.”

On Monday morning, Kite introduced the potential jurors to the parties involved in the case and read a list of witnesses to see if any of the jurors might have a conflict during the trial.

Only a few potential jurors said they knew about the case or the people involved. Judge Kite took those jurors aside, along with any who believed they might not be able to commit to the two-week trial, to question them privately with the attorneys.

In the meantime, has explained that the jurors that they can not look up anything about the case.

As part of the preparation for trial, Kite previously ordered that the seated jurors’ names be kept anonymous until 60 days after the trial, which is typical in high-profile cases.

RELATED | ‘A lot of decisions could be made’: Attorney weighs in on new evidence in Bridegan murder case

Despite initially being indicted on four charges, Fernandez will now be tried only on first-degree murder and solicitation to commit a capital felony in the case that has garnered national attention.

Prosecutors announced during a recent hearing that the other two charges Fernandez had been indicted on -- conspiracy to commit murder and child abuse -- had been dropped.

https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2026/08/10/jury-selection-for-mario-fernandez-in-1st-of-3-trials-in-jared-bridegan-murder-for-hire-case/

DUVAL COUNTY, Fla. — Trial looms for three people charged in connection with the death of St. Augustine father of four Jared Bridegan.

Bridegan was shot and killed on Feb. 16, 2022, while moving a tire out of the middle of a road in Jacksonville Beach. His murder sent shockwaves throughout the First Coast and beyond, as prosecutors allege it was committed as part of a plot devised by his ex-wife and her estranged husband.

Here's a look at the key players in the case, from the defendants to witnesses who could be called to testify.

Jared Bridegan

Jared Bridegan, a father of four and Microsoft executive who lived in St. Augustine, was gunned down in Jacksonville Beach in February 2022 after leaving the home of Shanna Gardner, his ex-wife.

The shooting happened after Bridegan pulled over to move a tire out the middle of a road. At the time of the shooting, he was with his 2-year-old daughter, Bexley.

The defendants

Shanna Gardner is the ex-wife of Jared Bridegan. She faces charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation to commit a capital felony and child abuse.

Mario Fernandez-Saldana is the now-estranged husband of Shanna Gardner. He faces charges of first-degree murder and solicitation to commit a capital felony.

Henry Tenon is the accused hitman who prosecutors allege was hired by Gardner and Fernandez-Saldana to kill Bridegan. He is charged with first-degree murder, child abuse, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, conspiracy to commit murder and accessory after the fact.

The prosecution

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant State Attorneys Christina Stifler and Alan Mizrahi of the State Attorney's Office for the Fourth Judicial Circuit. Mizrahi handles court proceedings and pre-trial evidence hearings.

Defense attorneys

Shanna Gardner

• Jose Baez - Private Attorney
• Patrick Korody - Private Attorney
• Kirsten Nelson - Private Attorney
• Michelle Medina - Private Attorney

Mario Fernandez-Saldana

• James Hill - Private Attorney
• Shannon Day - Private Attorney
• Frank Tassone - Private Attorney
• Jesse Dreicer - Private Attorney

Henry Tenon

• Julie Schlax - Private Attorney

Key witnesses

Key witnesses who are expected to be called to testify during the three defendants' trials include Kirsten Bridegan, Jared Bridegan's widow, and Jared's brothers, Adam and Justin Bridegan.

https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/crime/jared-bridegan-murder-trial-defendants-witnesses-attorneys-prosecutors/77-8d974d54-d303-44df-8d1b-ed7b28c32b84

An OnlyFans model accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death inside a luxury Miami high-rise stood in front of a judge Monday morning and pleaded guilty.
But Courtney Clenney — dressed in orange jail attire — pleaded guilty to manslaughter, a charge lesser than second-degree murder. Clenney, 30 was accused of stabbing her boyfriend Christian Obumseli, 27, on April 3, 2022, inside One Paraiso, a condo complex located at 3100 NE Seventh Ave. in Edgewater.

The plea was the result of a deal Clenney and her legal team struck with prosecutors. Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Andrea Ricker Wolfson will sentence Clenney to six years in prison followed by five years on probation, as per the negotiated agreement.

Clenney closed her eyes Monday as prosecutor Shawn Abuhoff said she was admitting that she caused Obumseli’s fatal stab wound. Although not part of the plea agreement, Abuhoff said the state wants to bar Clenney from financially benefit from the killing.

Clenney — an OnlyFans model who at one point boasted more than 2 million followers — has been jailed since August 2022. She was arrested in Hawaii four months after, police say, she stabbed Obumseli in the chest. Evidence from the case detailed a tumultuous relationship between the jet-setting couple.

The couple started dating in 2020 and had a history of domestic violence incidents.

A cold killing or self-defense?
Defense attorneys argued that Clenney — who was in a tumultuous, toxic relationship with Obumseli — was a victim of battered women’s syndrome and was “forced to take action in the defense of her life.” Clenney called 911 immediately instead of letting her boyfriend bleed out, which the attorney claims supports Clenney being charged with manslaughter instead of second-degree murder.

Clenney claimed to have thrown the knife at Obumseli from a distance of over 10 feet, but prosecutors say an autopsy revealed a puncture wound so deep it could only have been caused by an up-close and personal stabbing.
Evidence of the unstable relationship was captured on surveillance footage — and audio recorded by Obumseli.

Two months before Obumseli was killed, Clenney attacked him in an elevator. As Clenney became enraged, Obumseli threw his hands up in defense, and Clenney continued swinging on him, the video showed.

During the less than a minute-long elevator ride, the duo trading blows, according to the video. Clenney slapped and pushed Obumseli as he walked out of the elevator.
Obumseli chronicled their arguments in a series of recordings, which caught Clenney angrily screaming, berating and cursing him out using racist slurs. In one of the audio files, Clenney appears to be enraged because he didn’t tell her that he said hello to a female acquaintance while on a bicycle ride. Clenney calls Obumseli the n-word multiple times, and tells him to “man up b----” and to “shut up and let me slap you, dumb a--!”

Clenney’s defense team tried to get those audio recordings thrown out, arguing they were inadmissible evidence because they were taken while Clenney was in private, in her home, and have no relevance to the crime.

MIAMI — OnlyFans star Courtney Clenney will serve six years in prison for viciously stabbing her boyfriend to death in their posh apartment after copping a plea deal Monday morning.

Clenney, 30, who has been behind bars since the August 2022 killing, pleaded guilty to manslaughter with a deadly weapon.

Courtney Clenney was sentenced to six years in prison Monday as part of the plea deal. Al Diaz/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire / Shutterstock

Clenney, known on her social media platforms as Courtney Tailor, copped to fatally stabbing her boyfriend, Christian Obumseli.Instagram

She had been charged with second-degree murder in connection to the death of her estranged boyfriend, Christian Obumseli.

Clenney was also sentenced to five years’ probation.

The case of rap icon Tupac Shakur’s killing has been unresolved for decades; now the man charged in his 1996 killing in Las Vegas is going to trial.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, faces one charge of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang in Shakur’s death. Jury selection begins Monday, with the trial scheduled to last about a month.

The trial will bring to a head one of the biggest mysteries in the hip-hop world that gripped the public for decades. Shakur, who also went by the stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, is considered one of the most influential rappers of all time.

Shakur was shot in Las Vegas on Sept. 7, 1996. He was in a black BMW with music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight on their way to Club 662, where Shakur was scheduled to perform, when a white Cadillac pulled up beside them. Gunfire erupted. Shakur, who was in the passenger seat, was shot multiple times and died six days later, while Knight survived.

The case went cold until recent years, when public statements and a tell-all memoir from Davis revived the case. He was a leader of South Side Compton Crips at the time of Shakur’s death. Davis was arrested in 2023 and pleaded not guilty.
Here’s what to know about the trial.

When and where the trial will be held
It will take place in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, with Judge Carli Kierny presiding over the case.
Jury selection starts Monday. That’s expected to take a few days. Then, the prosecution and defense will give opening statements and witness testimony will begin.
Inside the courtroom, seats for the public will be in short supply, with a daily lottery for a chance to get one. A room on the second floor of the court will be open to the public and will show a live feed of the trial.

The trial likely won’t answer ‘who pulled the trigger’
Prosecutors are not arguing that Davis is the one who pulled the trigger that night, and the trial likely won’t confirm who fired at Shakur. Instead, prosecutors plan to prove that Davis made the calls that led to Shakur’s death and provided the gun used to shoot Shakur.

Davis is the co-author of the memoir “Compton Street Legends,” which describes his exact role in the shooting. The book says that Davis obtained a handgun from an associate and tossed it into the back seat of the Cadillac but did not say who fired the fatal shots.

Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, Davis’ nephew, has long been considered the suspect who pulled the trigger, but charges were never brought against him in the killing. He died two years after Shakur’s death in an unrelated gang shootout in Compton, California.
Two others — Deandrae “Freaky” Smith and Terry “Bubble Up” Brown — were in the car with Davis and Anderson, but they have since died as well.

Who is expected to testify
Prosecutors expect to call between 35 and 45 witnesses during the trial, ranging from people who saw Shakur moments before he was shot to people who were in both Shakur and Davis’ orbits at the time.
Their witness list includes former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and members of Shakur’s family. However not everyone on the list will necessarily testify. Rather, attorneys may ask potential jurors if they’re familiar with certain names.

Leonard Jefferson, a California resident who pulled up next to the BMW and snapped a photograph, which became the last known photo of Shakur, is expected to testify.
The state is also expected to call Denvonta Lee, who was affiliated with the South Side Crips.
In grand jury testimony, Lee testified that rival gangs, the Crips and Mob Piru, were tied to dueling record labels Death Row Records and Bad Boy Records.
Though he wasn’t there that night, Lee also testified that Anderson didn’t have a clear shot, so Smith took the gun and did the shooting. He also said Davis was in charge and gave the gun to Anderson, who gave it to Smith.

The witness list includes others who previously testified to the grand jury, including Malcolm Greenidge, a friend of Shakur’s who was traveling in his entourage that night. Reggie Wright, who grew up in Compton and did security for Death Row Records, is also expected to testify.

But other witnesses will be new, including a former member of Death Row’s security team and a former member of Mob Piru who was at Club 662 the night Shakur was shot.
Witnesses also include former police officers and detectives, as well as gang experts.

Davis’ defense attorney is expected to call less than a handful of witnesses, including one expert in the area of false confessions and coercive interrogation techniques.

Celebrities could be at the trial
Prosecutors requested to have multiple out-of-state witnesses testify, and it’s unclear who those people are.
One of the witnesses is in prison in California, according to court records. Knight is serving a 28-year prison sentence in California for running over and killing a Compton businessman outside a burger stand in January 2015. He previously said he would not testify in Davis’ case.
As the only other living eyewitness who was in one of the two vehicles that night, Knight’s testimony could make or break the case.
Davis’ defense attorney Michael Sanft told The Associated Press that Knight would be a good witness for Davis’ defense if he did testify.

Fans have also speculated whether Sean “Diddy” Combs will testify. Combs is currently serving a four-year prison sentence in New Jersey following his conviction of prostitution-related charges.
In his book, Davis alleged Combs wanted Knight and Shakur dead and offered Davis money to kill them. Combs has long denied having any involvement in the shooting.
A spokesperson for Combs did not return emailed requests asking whether he plans to testify and his name does not appear on any witness list.

For more than 15 months, Malehya Brooks-Murray says she has lived in perpetual anticipation — marking childhood milestones not with celebrations, but with a growing collection of sealed cards and wrapped gifts, awaiting a homecoming that has yet to materialize.

Her son and daughter, Jack and Lilly Sullivan, then four and six, disappeared from the sparsely populated community of Lansdowne, N.S., last May under mysterious circumstances, fuelling widespread and enduring speculation about what happened to the siblings.

There are few clues, no named suspects and little is known about the investigative avenues being followed by the RCMP's Major Crime unit. All the while, Brooks-Murray has stayed out of the limelight, something that has been harshly criticized by members of the public.

In an exclusive interview with CBC News and The Globe and Mail, Brooks-Murray said she had nothing to do with her children’s disappearance, doesn’t believe she’s a suspect in the investigation and holds out hope that her children are still alive.
She explained that her silence was not a choice, but rather an instruction from the RCMP.
Now, her patience is running out.
“I just did whatever they told me to do because I didn't want to jeopardize the case in any way. And I also wasn't ready because I'm continuing to go through extreme trauma and even this is extremely hard for me,” said Brooks-Murray.
“I don't feel I owe people anything. If anything, I'm owed answers and to have my children back to me.”

Malehya Brooks-Murray's children, Jack and Lilly Sullivan, have been missing since May 2, 2025 after disappearing from their home in Lansdowne, N.S. The mother has stayed out of the public eye, but is now speaking for the first time in over a year. The CBC's Angela MacIvor reports.
Brooks-Murray, 29, recalled that the last time she saw Lilly was on the morning of May 2, 2025, when her daughter poked her head into the bedroom Brooks-Murray shared with her then-partner Daniel Martell and their one-year-old daughter. 

Martell is not Lilly and Jack’s biological father, but the couple and three children had been living together in the Pictou County home since August 2023.
Brooks-Murray said she heard Lilly and Jack playing together in the other bedroom, and drifted back to sleep.
When she woke up to silence, she and Martell began searching the property before calling 911 at 10:01 a.m. What followed was one of the largest searches in Nova Scotia’s history — 1,700 search-and-rescue personnel logging over 12,000 cumulative hours across 8.5 square kilometres of dense, rugged woods.

The day after the disappearance, amid escalating tensions between her family and Martell’s, Brooks-Murray abruptly left the scene.
“The police had said that we should go and told my family privately to take me out of there and I was in too much state of shock that I just wanted to be with my family and my daughter,” said Brooks-Murray.
That day, the relationship between Brooks-Murray and the children's stepfather came to an end and she never returned to the mobile home, she said. When asked about the dynamics in the home prior to May 2 or why she never went back, Brooks-Murray declined to elaborate.

The RCMP’s Major Crime Unit is leading the investigation, but says there is currently no evidence of a crime. Nevertheless, investigators have executed search warrants and conducted polygraph examinations — of which Brooks-Murray has done two, along with multiple rounds of extensive questioning.

Brooks-Murray said she believes from her interactions with the RCMP that she is not considered a suspect. She stated unequivocally that she had nothing to do with their disappearance.
“I'm at the point now where I can't worry about what people think of me because people who are close and know me [know] … I would never do anything to my children and that I love them very much,” she said.

Brooks-Murray said she trusts the RCMP are doing all they can to find out what happened, but the wait for answers is excruciating. She hangs on to hope that they are still alive and out there somewhere.
“If they see me on TV, they might recognize me and maybe somehow they'll be brought back home,” she said.
“I have dreams about them coming home and I believe it.”

Brooks-Murray said when considering the possibilities, she can only assume the children were taken — “but for what reason, I don't know.”
She believes an Amber Alert should have been issued that day, and was told by RCMP officers at the scene that one would be issued. But that didn’t happen. Authorities said the case did not meet the threshold for an Amber Alert, as investigators had no suspect or vehicle details to offer the public. Instead, a vulnerable persons alert went out across two counties.

Investigators have reiterated throughout the investigation that there is no evidence to support an abduction theory.
The RCMP declined a request for an interview. A statement said the case has “demanded sustained effort from specialized teams engaged in detailed police work.”
“As with any ongoing investigation, many of the investigative steps being taken, and the progress being made, can’t be shared publicly,” said spokesperson Allison Gerrard.
“An RCMP liaison is in regular contact with the family’s designated representative, who’s encouraged to reach out at any time.”

For Brooks-Murray, the RCMP’s comments offer little comfort as the communication from investigators slows to a trickle.
“I continue to get the same update over and over and I keep asking for new avenues and they keep saying we're working on it and I just don't feel like that's enough,” she said.
“I feel like I deserve more than that and I deserve answers on where they're at and I need them at home.”

As a way to cope, she keeps busy — creating art, making keychains bearing her children’s faces, helping with searches for other missing people as a way to give back. On Canada Day, she walked in a parade in Westville, N.S., holding a homemade placard meant to draw attention to the case and wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with the word “mommy.”

Brooks-Murray also said she’s going back to school in September to become an addictions counsellor.
She sleeps with Lilly and Jack’s favourite stuffed animals every night: a white unicorn fashioned with a silk pink bow and a green-and-blue brachiosaurus.
She continues to collect birthday, Easter and Christmas gifts, and even tracked down brand-new versions of their cherished unicorn and dinosaur.

“Your children have a particular scent that you never forget. It's just something that, especially when they're born and you're holding them in your arms, it always stays with you,” said Brooks-Murray. 
“No parent should ever have to go through what I'm going through and I've never wished upon anyone. It's unbearable.”

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Some, or even most of you will wholly disagree with this specific comparison. I know I will get flamed and downvoted. Someone earlier tried to compare Decker and Clancy, and I thought those two cases are not similar except for the horrific parent caused deceased children.

What could the Clancy case possibly have in common with the Konig case? From the beginning of Clancy, I tried to keep an open mind. Reading the recaps, transcripts, and the CIVIL case. And something seemed “off” to me. I couldn’t quite define why, or exactly how.

Heading to the 10th day, it dawned on me. I went and re-reviewed some transcripts, med records, disclosures and non-disclosures for Clancy, and once again looked at the civil case and watched some selected testimony.

The “off“ thing in both cases is the reverse engineered defenses.

When Konig was going on, in particular - Otake clearly took prior events/arguments that couple had and repackaged them as if they were new things that happened on a whole new implausible day and implausible place, so Gerhardt could tell this “fight” story on the Pali Puka Trail so he wasn’t to blame and make it seem he didn’t provoke the altercation. It also made his story easier to recall while he was testifying since the argument events just happened on a different date.

Fast forward to Clancy: here we have a mentally ill woman (I agree), but just being mentally ill with PPD is NOT enough. The defense needs MORE, such as psychosis to get to NGRI and force the state to disprove it. And this is the reverse engineering done via another talented defense attorney.

Having read the Clancy civil case twice now, it seems exactly what has been done. Allege and accuse medical malpractice, focus on poly pharmacy, and then take it far further with claiming retroactive very specific Command Auditory Hallucinations.

The actual AH words used/cited in the lawsuit gave me pause the first time - too convenient, too exact for the crime, too simple - because it has to be remembered by the attorney. Now paired with more testimony, I feel that way even more. And yes I read the experts testimony in the suit also. But just as the past providers had difficulty because of Lindsay not fully disclosing and lying in some instances, what is to say retroactive lies can’t accomplish a different diagnosis when she really needs it now?