Southeast
Florida Microsoft exec sent warning email to suspect ex-wife accused in his murder
Slain Microsoft employee Jared Bridegan and his murder suspect ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, exchanged contentious emails in 2017 regarding finances, child therapy and their divorce, according to redacted documents published earlier this month.
Bridegan was fatally shot in front of his car after coming across a tire in the middle of a secluded road on Feb. 16, 2022, which prosecutors believe was a setup orchestrated by Gardner and her now-husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. His then-2-and-a-half-year-old daughter was in the back seat at the time.
The documents obtained by Fox News Digital through a records request detail some of the items police collected from Gardner’s West Richland, Washington, home while serving a warrant in February 2023, including phones, an Apple Watch, multiple laptops and other electronic items. Gardner would not be arrested until six months later, in August 2023.
A child who was home at the time of the search told police that their mother kept her “important” electronics in her “bedroom closet,” and then whispered “up above” to the office while pointing toward the ceiling, documents show.
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Jared Bridegan, left, was fatally shot in front of his car after coming across a tire in the middle of a secluded road on Feb. 16, 2022, which prosecutors believe was a setup orchestrated by Shanna Gardner, right, and her now-husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. (Handout/Duval County Jail)
The documents also contain redacted photographs of heated emails exchanged between Bridegan and Gardner from April and May 2017.
In April 2017, Gardner told Bridegan she was sending their children to therapy and they “are caught in the crossfire of living between two houses.” In another email, Gardner criticized Bridegan for not prioritizing the therapy sessions or giving “financial help for it,” despite agreeing that their two children needed therapy.
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Attorney Jose Baez appears in court alongside his client, Shanna Gardner-Fernandez, at the Duval County Courthouse in Jacksonville, Florida, on Friday, Nov. 3, 2023. Gardner-Fernandez was arraigned on charges relating to her alleged involvement in the orchestration of the murder of her ex-husband, Jared Bridegan. (Larry Paci for Fox News Digital)
Bridegan, in turn, said he “will not pay for things you and I do not agree to prior.”
The two exchanged other heated phrases in their emails back-and-forth. Gardner told Bridegan to move “that self righteous pedestal of yours in front of a mirror.” Bridegan asked Gardner, “[W]hy are you ashamed of who you really are, why cover up all your tattoos in court, why not be proud of the person you have become?” He also accused her of mismanaging money and calls her a “retard.”
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Shanna Gardner-Fernandez and her husband, Mario Fernandez, on a family vacation in Hawaii. The photo of the couple, who are now separated, was posted the day Jared Bridegan was murdered, allegedly by Fernandez and his co-conspirators. (So Shelli blog)
“Wowwwww Satan be careful, you really should wait to show your hand this early on. I know I am [smiley face],” Bridegan wrote in one email response to Gardner, adding later, “I am shocked you keep underestimating me…or did you think all those months during our divorce, when you fooled around in the darkness on so many nights, and in so many places, no one was…..again, best to not show your hand this early on.”
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A screenshot of emails exchanged between Jared Bridegan and Shanna Gardner with the subject line “Kids’ Therapy.” (Dual County)
In May 2017, Bridegan promised his ex-wife that she would not “find happiness by tearing” his family down.
“You cannot bring us down as a family.”
“[Redacted] will be raised in a Christ centered home. You will not thwart this,” he wrote. “You cannot bring us down as a family. I realize you live a life without the Spirit, without the Priesthood, and without the blessings of the Temple. You won’t find happiness by tearing us down. I won’t allow you to.”
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Shanna Gardner, right, and her husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, inset, allegedly offered a hitman $150,000 to kill Gardner’s ex-husband, Microsoft manager Jared Bridegan. (Handout/ © Bob Self/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK)
Fox News Digital has reached out to Gardner’s attorney, Jose Baez, and the State Attorney’s Office for the 4th Judicial Circuit for comment.
Gardner and Fernandez-Saldana are accused of paying $150,000 to accused hitman Henry Tenon, Fernandez-Saldana’s former tenant, to kill Bridegan. Tenon is accused of ambushing and fatally shooting Bridegan in Jacksonville Beach on Feb. 16, 2022.
Both Gardner and Fernandez-Saldana have pleaded not guilty in connection with Bridegan’s murder. Tenon pleaded guilty to pulling the trigger and agreed to testify against the other suspects.
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Southeast
Trump seeks more than $6M from Fani Willis’ office in wake of election interference case
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President Donald Trump is asking the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to reimburse him more than $6.2 million in attorney fees and costs in the wake of the recently dismissed 2020 election interference case she brought against him.
The development comes after Willis was permanently sidelined from prosecuting the case against Trump last September. She had lost an appeal after the Georgia Court of Appeals said Willis and her office could not continue to prosecute the case, citing an “appearance of impropriety” stemming from her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade. The case was then dismissed in November.
Georgia state legislators last year passed a law that says that if a prosecutor is disqualified from a case because of his or her own improper conduct and the case is then dismissed, anyone charged in that case is entitled to request “all reasonable attorney’s fees and costs incurred” in their defense. The judge overseeing the case then is responsible for reviewing the request and awarding the fees and costs, which are to be paid from the budget of the prosecutor’s office.
“In accordance with Georgia law, President Trump has moved the Court to award reasonable attorney fees and costs incurred in his defense of the politically motivated, and now rightfully dismissed, case brought by disqualified DA Fani Willis,” Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead attorney in Georgia, said in a statement.
FANI WILLIS PERMANENTLY REMOVED FROM PROSECUTING TRUMP ELECTION INTERFERENCE CASE AFTER LOSING APPEAL
President Donald Trump and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Alex Slitz-Pool/Getty Images)
A motion filed Wednesday said, “President Trump prays that this Court award attorney fees and costs for the defense of President Trump in the amount of $6,261,613,08.”
Willis’ indictment had accused Trump of pressuring officials to overturn the 2020 vote in Georgia, organizing “fake electors” and harassing election workers.
A Fulton County grand jury indicted Trump and 18 others in August 2023, and Trump surrendered at the Fulton County Jail on Aug. 24.
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Special prosecutor Nathan Wade and Fani Willis, the district attorney for Fulton County (Getty Images)
Last month, when another person charged in the case made a similar filing, Willis’ office filed a motion asking to be heard on the matter of any claims for fees and costs filed in the case, according to The Associated Press.
Willis’ motion raised concerns about the law passed last year that allowed Trump and others to seek to have their expenses paid.
“The statute raises grave separation-of-powers concerns by purporting to impose financial liability on a constitutional officer, twice elected by the citizens of Fulton County, for the lawful exercise of her core duties under the Georgia Constitution,” her motion said.
Donald Trump’s booking photo provided by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office after he surrendered on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. (Fulton County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
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Her motion also added that the law violates due process by “retroactively imposing a novel fee-shifting scheme” that creates a substantial burden for the county’s taxpayers without any recourse.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Southeast
After 2 straight losses, Democrat Stacey Abrams sits out 2026 race for Georgia governor
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The third time won’t be the charm for Stacey Abrams, at least in 2026.
The two-time Democratic gubernatorial nominee in battleground Georgia is ruling out another run for governor this year, saying that instead she’ll focus on her work fighting what she warns is the nation’s move toward authoritarianism under President Donald Trump.
“Americans are in pain but they are ready to act, and now is the moment to reconnect to what is at stake and what is possible,” Abrams said in a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It’s clear to me that the most effective way I can serve right now is by continuing to do this important work. For that reason, I will not seek elected office in 2026.”
Abrams, a former Democratic Party leader in the Georgia state legislature and a nationally known voting-rights advocate, narrowly lost to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in the 2018 gubernatorial election. She lost her 2022 rematch with Kemp by nearly eight points.
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Stacey Abrams, seen here at Georgia State University on Nov. 7, 2022, in Atlanta, Georgia, will not run for governor in 2026. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)
Sources confirmed to Fox News Digital last spring that Abrams was mulling a third straight run for governor in the race to succeed the now-term-limited Kemp.
Abrams grabbed plenty of national attention during the 2018 Georgia race, and came close to making history as the nation’s first Black female elected governor. Her refusal to concede to Kemp after losing by a razor-thin margin boosted her among many Democrats while becoming a top GOP political target.
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She launched the Fair Fight political organization following her defeat, helped Biden narrowly carry Georgia in the 2020 presidential election, and also contributed to the sweep by the Democrats in the Jan. 5, 2021 twin Senate runoff elections.
Abrams raised over $110 million in fundraising for her 2022 rematch with Kemp, but was soundly defeated by the Republican incumbent.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, seen speaking with Fox News Digital during his 2022 re-election campaign, is term-limited and cannot run for re-election in 2026. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)
In recent years, the political machine Abrams built has faded. The Abrams-founded New Georgia Project folded last year after being fined $300,000 for illegally backing her 2018 campaign.
And while Abrams last year considered a 2026 gubernatorial run, other Democratic candidates jumped into the race.
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who served as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement during former President Joe Biden’s administration, is widely seen as the front-runner for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
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Also running for the Democratic nomination is former Lieutenant Gov. Geoff Duncan, who was elected in 2018 but declined to seek re-election in 2022. The former Republican is now a moderate Democrat. Former state Rep. Ruwa Romman and former Dekalb County CEO Michael Thurmond are also in the race.
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who served in then-President Joe Biden’s administration, is running for the 2026 Democratic nomination for governor in Georgia. (Getty Images)
In the race for the Republican nomination, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones has the backing of President Donald Trump.
The field also includes Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
The Cook Report, a leading non-partisan political handicapper, rates the race a toss-up, while Inside Elections rates it as tilt Republican and Sabato’s Crystal Ball rates it as lean Republican.
Abrams, in her statement to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said she’ll keep her focus on the fight to protect democracy.
“The antidote to authoritarianism and its harms has always been democracy; and I have long believed that democracy requires active engagement and staunch defenders,” she wrote.”But democracy is experienced by the vast majority through the work of government — when it fails, we are all imperiled.”
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Southeast
Florida man accused of killing woman, dumping body on popular tourist destination: report
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A Florida man is behind bars after allegedly killing a woman and leaving her body on a popular beach the day after Christmas.
Brandon Ward McCray, 28, was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals and Hollywood Police Department on Dec. 30, 2025 and charged with sexual battery, kidnapping, battery and battery by strangulation, according to police records obtained by Fox News Digital.
Authorities responded to a call regarding a body on the sand of Hollywood Beach – located approximately 15 miles from Fort Lauderdale Beach – at around 7 a.m. on the morning of Dec. 26, 2025, according to WPLG. The victim, later identified as 56-year-old Heather Asendorf, was pronounced dead at the scene.
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Brandon Ward McCray is charged with sexual battery, kidnapping, battery and battery by strangulation in Broward County, Florida, according to police records obtained by Fox News Digital. (Broward County Sheriff’s Office)
Witnesses later told NBC Miami the body was wrapped in a white blanket and had blood trailing from the remains.
Officials did not release details regarding Asendorf’s cause of death, but previously stated that foul play was suspected.
Additionally, detectives believe McCray and Asendorf knew each other prior to the alleged murder, according to WSVN.
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Authorities reportedly allege Brandon Ward McCray murdered 56-year-old Heather Asendorf after her body was found on Hollywood Beach in Hollywood, Florida on Dec. 26, 2025. (iStock)
“This case remains an active criminal investigation,” Hollywood police said in a news release. “There is no indication of a broader threat to the community.”
McCray was previously charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in 2023 after allegedly brandishing a gun at a tow truck driver as his vehicle was being repossessed, according to NBC Miami.
MAN WITH VIOLENT CRIMINAL HISTORY ON PAROLE ALLEGEDLY STABS TEEN TO DEATH: OFFICIALS
Officials reportedly did not release details regarding Heather Asendorf’s cause of death, but previously stated that foul play was suspected. (iStock)
He was taken into custody at his nearby home and booked into the Broward County Main Jail on $770,000 bond, WPLG reported.
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The Hollywood Police Department and McCray’s attorney did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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