Henry Tenon
Published on March 7, 2025 at 12:20 pm
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A star witness’s repeated claims of innocence were not disclosed to defendants in the Jared Bridegan murder case, new documents show.
When asked last month whether he had any information to disclose from a meeting with the witness, the prosecutor was clear: No.
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Prosecutor Alan Mizrahi repeatedly told the judge Feb. 7 that he had “nothing” to share with the defense team.
“We don’t have any statements from Mr. [Henry] Tenon in that meeting that we need to disclose,” Mizrahi said. “There is nothing to disclose.”
On Thursday, however, prosecutors released a detailed account of the meeting that appeared to contradict Mizrahi’s claim. The new information shows Tenon, who previously confessed to killing Bridegan, making claims of innocence. Such statements must, by law, be disclosed to defendants.
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Tenon is one of three defendants charged with the murder of the Microsoft executive and St. Augustine father of four in February 2022. Tenon confessed to being the hitman and agreed to testify against two accused of plotting the murder: Bridegan’s ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, and her new husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana. Both have pleaded not guilty.
The newly released information includes a seven-page account of the Jan. 14 meeting between Tennon, his attorney and prosecutors at the State Attorney’s Office.
According to the document, Tenon repeated stunning claims of innocence, which he’d initially expressed at a court hearing the day before. He said he’d confessed and implicated Fernandez Saldana only so prosecutors would question the other man and “learn that Tenon was not guilty.” He also said he’d never heard of the “Nocatee” neighborhood where he was alleged to have plotted the crime.
The records released also include detailed notes taken at the meeting by Tenon’s public defender, Al Chipperfield. They detail the type and tenor of influence prosecutors exerted on their key witness, reminding him he would face the death penalty if he recanted, offering to move him to a different jail facility “if he was concerned” for his safety, and reminding him of the tearful remorse he’d previously expressed for killing Bridgean in front of his 2-year-old daughter.
Prosecutors also claimed they were “angry,” on his behalf, saying he was being picked as the “fall guy” for “white, rich people.” Tenon is Black. Gardner is white and the daughter of multimillionaires.
Any information that might bolster a defendant’s case — so-called “Brady” material — must be turned over to defendants in a process known as discovery. It includes information known to prosecutors but not part of an official document. Circuit Judge London Kite reminded Mizrahi of this at the Feb. 7 hearing, citing the “prosecutor obligation … to disclose any statements of a co-defendant.”
“We understand the rules,” Mizrahi responded. “We will always disclose what we need to disclose in the course of this case.”
This is not the first time the defendants have raised questions about the timely release of information. After Tenon stunned the court in January by appearing to recant his confession, his codefendants — who were not at the hearing — were not immediately notified. An unlabeled transcript of his comments was included with dozens of other documents, days later, in a routine release of evidence.
It was the January transcript that prompted Garnder and Fernandez Saldana’s defense attorneys to seek any “related” discovery, including “any and all information regarding the context of the false testimony, including Mr. Tenon’s current state of mind and participation as a state witness.”
The defense team didn’t know about the January meeting between Tenon and prosecutors when they filed their original motion, but after learning of it, they surmised there might be more information to gain.
“We do believe that there is certainly likely or certainly could have been Brady information by the defendant at that meeting,” Fernandez Saldana’s attorney, Jesse Dreicer, told Judge Kite at the Feb. 7 hearing. “They [prosecutors] are saying there isn’t. We will get to the bottom of it.”
The information released by prosecutors this week shows that hunch was correct.
Attorneys for Fernandez Saldana and Gardner declined to comment for this story. Jacksonville Today has reached out to Tenon’s attorney and the State Attorney’s Office for comment and will update this story if they respond.
