The attorney for the man who confessed to shooting and killing St. Johns County father Jared Bridegan testified in court Friday.
This was at a hearing for Mario Fernandez Saldana and Shanna Gardner.
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Gardner, Bridegan’s ex-wife, and Fernandez Saldana, Gardner’s estranged husband, are charged in Bridegan’s 2022 killing in Jacksonville Beach and the murder plot leading up to the shooting.
The testimony comes following new documents that reveal Henry Tenon, the man who admitted to shooting Bridegan, said the words “false testimony” in open court last month.
Tenon’s admission was part of his plea deal, which requires him to testify that Fernandez Saldana hired him to kill Bridegan.
RELATED: New documents reveal man who admitted to shooting, killing Jared Bridegan may have lied in testimony
And if it is true that any of Tenon’s testimony is false, this could affect the case.
Tenon’s lawyer Alan Chipperfield admitted he was surprised by his client’s statements.
“Just prior to that, I had told the judge that everything was OK,” Chipperfield said in court Friday.
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Chipperfield indicated why he thinks Tenon said, “false testimony.”
“I think I told the state that I thought that I suspected there may be an inmate in the jail that was influencing Mr. Tenon and it could have been the co-defendant that has gotten to him,” Chipperfield said.
Fernandez Saldana’s attorneys are requesting specific information about the context of the “false testimony.”
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They have also asked what steps prosecutors have taken to void Tenon’s plea agreement, or in the alternative, learn why his plea agreement should not be rescinded. The state addressed that in court Friday.
“There is not going to be a response,” said the state. “The response is there is no response.”
The next court hearing in this case will be Feb. 12.
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