Chief Gene Paul Smith of the Jacksonville Beach Police Department and State Attorney Melissa Nelson announced Wednesday that an arrest had been made in the death of St. Johns County father of four Jared Bridegan.

Jared Bridegan Murder Case: Nelson stated that Henry Tenon, 61, was arrested and charged with the following offenses:

Conspiracy to commit murder – Nelson stated that investigators are aware that Tenon did not act alone in the crime.
After-the-fact accomplice to a capital felony
Nelson charged Bridegan with second-degree murder because her then-2-year-old daughter Bexley was directly in danger during the shooting.

Tenon did not commit the crime alone, according to Nelson, and his arrest warrant will be sealed for the next 30 days.

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She stated that her office was only sharing limited information in order to protect the case’s integrity. At the end of the news conference, neither Nelson nor Smith took any questions from the media.

Bridegan’s second wife, Kirsten Bridegan, with whom he shares three-year-old Bexley and one-year-old London, was also present at the news conference on Wednesday.

Tenon’s next court appearance is scheduled for Thursday. Nelson stated that in order to obtain a first-degree murder indictment, investigators will have to present the case to a grand jury.

Breaking News Tenon previously resided at a home owned by Mario Fernandez, who is now married to Bridegan’s ex-wife Shanna Gardner-Fernandez. Jared Bridegan and Gardner-Fernandez were parents to 10-year-old twins.

Bridegan was gunned down in Jacksonville Beach on February 16, 2022. After taking his twins and Bexley out to dinner. The software engineer had just dropped the twins off at Gardner-house Fernandez’s when he came across a tire on the one-way road.

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Smith stated on Wednesday that the “tire was deliberately placed there to make him stop.”

Jared Bridegan got out of his Volkswagen Atlas to change the tire. And was shot multiple times while Bexley sat in her car seat.

“This was a premeditated and well-planned ambush and murder,” Smith said.

Early in the investigation, police asked the public for help identifying a dark-blue Ford F-150 seen. On surveillance footage near the crime scene. And a $55,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest.

Tenon has been in jail since August, according to a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office inmate search, on charges including possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, driving while license suspended or revoked, and unlawful speed.

Smith stated that the JBPD continues to encourage the public to come forward. With any information they may have about Tenon or the case.