Attorney for Shanna Gardner asks judge to close part of evidentiary hearing amid push to disqualify state attorney

Shanna Gardner’s attorney on Wednesday asked the court to close part of an evidentiary hearing on Thursday related to her motion to disqualify State Attorney Melissa Nelson’s office from prosecuting her in the alleged murder-for-hire plot against her ex-husband.

Gardner and her now estranged husband Mario Fernandez are accused of hiring Henry Tenon to kill Gardener’s ex-husband, Jared Bridegan, a 33-year-old St. Johns County father, in Jacksonville Beach in 2022.

Tenon has admitted to shooting Bridegan after ambushing him by leaving a tire in the road on Bridegan’s route home.

RELATED: Murder-for-hire plot included practice run along Jared Bridegan’s normal route home: prosecutors | How investigators quickly keyed in on Jared Bridegan’s ex-wife, her husband following ambush murder in Jax Beach

Gardner and Fernandez both face charges of first-degree murder with a weapon, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, solicitation to commit a capital felony and child abuse (because Bridegan’s then-2-year-old daughter was present during the murder). Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for both.

Gardner’s lawyers have filed a motion to dismiss the indictment against her and both defense teams want Nelson’s office removed from the case.

The issue is whether members of the prosecution team saw privileged communications between Gardner and her attorneys and if so, did that give the prosecution unlawful access to attorney-client communications? Access to privileged communications could deny Gardner her right to a fair trial under the 6th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

WJXT, joined by other local media, opposed a closed hearing because the public has a right to know what information the prosecution may have had in building its case against Gardner and Fernandez and whether that is enough to justify disqualifying the state attorney’s office and assigning this case to a prosecutor in another part of Florida.

Judge London Kite took the defense motion and media objections under advisement and will announce her decision before Thursday’s evidentiary hearing, beginning at 1 p.m.