Bridegan shot while removing tire; daughter in car seat nearby
Jared Bridegan, a Microsoft design manager, was killed in February 2022 in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, after stepping out of his SUV to remove a tire from a road while his daughter sat in a nearby car seat. The killing stumped police for months as investigators struggled to understand why someone with no apparent enemies would be gunned down in front of his young child.
More than four years later, the case is in a Jacksonville courtroom. A jury began deliberating Wednesday in the trial of Kirsten Bridegan, the victim’s wealthy ex-wife, and her husband, who prosecutors say ordered the killing as part of a murder-for-hire scheme.
According to the prosecution, the attack stemmed from a longstanding joint custody dispute and other parenting issues involving the couple’s twins. The defendants are accused of orchestrating the killing.
In closing arguments, Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler described Bridegan as “unarmed, unaware, exposed, vulnerable” when the attack began. “He couldn’t have known, on that cold asphalt in February of 2022, the architects of his murder had been making preparations for his death for months,” Stifler said.
The prosecution’s account — Bridegan stopped on the road with his daughter in a nearby car seat, shot by attackers who had been making preparations for his death for months — was offered to jurors as evidence of a murder-for-hire ordered over a custody dispute.
The case has moved through court proceedings in Jacksonville since the February 2022 shooting. Kirsten Bridegan and her husband are charged in connection with the alleged murder-for-hire scheme, which prosecutors say was rooted in the custody battle and parenting disputes over the couple’s twins.
Jurors began considering the evidence Wednesday after hearing the prosecution’s closing arguments.