Jared Bridegan's Widow Now Faces Contempt Over One Refusal

Two phones defined August 21 in the Jared Bridegan murder case, and the court could only reach one of them. The first belongs to Kirsten Bridegan. A judge halted Mario Fernandez's trial mid-testimony because Kirsten defied an order to surrender that phone for extraction on behalf of Shanna Gardner's lawyers. Gardner's attorneys say the material includes Kirsten's messages with the two children Gardner shares with Jared, both listed as witnesses, and argue the phone may show whether testimony was influenced. The show-cause order that followed put Jared's widow one hearing away from a contempt finding, until an appeals court stepped in hours later and gave her three business days to fight.
The second phone belonged to Fernandez, and according to a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office detective, it was factory reset on August 26, 2022, six months after the killing and the same day as a T-Mobile store purchase. Prosecutors say Fernandez kept right on using the wiped device, logged back into 35 ac