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First Watch: Microsoft Dad’s Murder Case & Florida Sets 14th Execution of 2025
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Crime House has the perfect new show for spooky season Twisted Tales. Hosted by Heidi Wong, each episode of Twisted Tales is perfect for late night scares and daytime frights, revealing the disturbing real life events that inspired the world's most terrifying blockbusters and the ones too twisted to make it to screen. Twisted Tales is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Listen wherever you get your podcasts new episodes out every Monday. This is Crime House Brand new videos and what prosecutors are calling a murder for hire case of a Jacksonville father, Jared Bride again was shot and killed in Jacksonville beach back in February 2022. The 2022 murder of Florida father Jared Breitigan in front of his child shocked the nation. And now, just months after a massive evidence dump, his ex wife and her husband are preparing to stand trial. Hi, I'm Katie Ring, a true crime analyst, self defense instructor and fierce advocate for victims. And this is Crime House Daily, your essential true crime companion. Every weekday morning and night here at Crime House Daily, we dig into the true crime stories making headlines right now, where justice is unfolding, arrests are happening, and new evidence is emerging. Every morning, First Watch gets you up to speed on the biggest cases. Every night, Night Watch takes you deeper. If you want to follow a case from the first 911 call to the final verdict, this is the place for you. Follow Crime House Daily wherever you get your podcasts, leave a review and for ad free listening, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. For video, check out our YouTube channel @CrimeHouse Daily. This episode discusses active criminal cases and breaking news. The information we share is based on what's publicly available at the time of recording and may change as new evidence comes to light. We aim to inform, not to decide guilt or innocence, so everyone mentioned is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Today we're covering two major cases in the news. The first case is the shocking 2022ambush murder of Florida father of four Jared Breitegan. His ex wife Shanna Gardner and her husband Mario Fernandez are now awaiting trial as newly released evidence reveals chilling details. The second case is death row inmate Samuel Smithers, nicknamed the Deacon of Death, whose execution is scheduled for October 14th. His fate is part of Florida's unprecedented surge in executions this year, so we'll break down his confession and crime. As of this recording, he's set to receive a lethal injection. Before we get into today's cases, a major update came through last week in the 1991 yogurt shop murders. If you don't know what that is it was the murder of four teenage girls at a yogurt shop in Austin, Texas. The girls, Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, Eliza Thomas and Amy Ayers were found nude, gagged, bound and shot in a yogurt shop that was set on fire. The physical evidence in this case was super limited because the shop was burned down and the Austin police got thousands of tips and confessions and that led nowhere. And it looked like the girls were not going to get justice. But after 34 years, Austin Police have identified a man that they think killed the girls. His name is Robert Eugene Brashers, a serial killer that matches DNA found under Amy's fingernails. The Austin police chief called the yogurt shop murders one of the most devastating and haunting cases in the city's history, especially because of how the girls bodies were found. Eliza's sister said she thought she'd die not knowing what happened to her sister. Brashears killed himself in 1999. So justice may not look the same, but hopefully she can have some semblance of peace. The first case we're looking at today is a murder investigation that started three years ago and built up slowly until it exploded. In February 2022, 33 year old Jared Breitegan was ambushed and killed outside of his car in Jacksonville Beach, Florida while his two year old daughter was sitting in the back strapped into her car seat. Allegedly, Jared's ex wife Shanna Gardner and her estranged husband Mario Fernandez plotted to kill him and hired a man named Henry Tenen as the shooter. They're currently scheduled to go on trial on August 3, 2026. And just last month, a ton of evidence was publicly released by the Florida State Attorney's office, including body camera footage, recording of 911 calls, police interviews and sworn statements. Jared Breitigan was born on June 29, 1988 in Warrenburg, Missouri. But when he was young, his family moved to Jacksonville, Florida. After high school, Jared went to Utah Valley University where he graduated with a degree in digital media with an emphasis in film production in 2014. After college, he works as a web designer for several major companies including Microsoft. Jared stayed in Salt Lake City, Utah, but met his first wife Shanna while he was back in Florida for a visit. They got married in 2010 and had two kids, twins named Liam and Abigail. At first they lived in Utah, then move to Connecticut. But when Liam is diagnosed with a heart condition that requires him to live at sea level, Jared and Shanna decide to move back to Florida. But after the move, things start going downhill when Jared reportedly finds emails Hinting that Shanna is having an affair and she eventually files for divorce. The process is pretty bitter and both sides claim some pretty dark things about each other. Shanna says Jared showed patterns of abusive behavior and coaches the kids on what to say and Jared says that Shanna put recording devices in the kids bedroom and in his car. Both of them deny these allegations, but the result is the same. In 2015, Jared and Shanna are officially divorced. After the split, Jared briefly moves back to Utah for work, but eventually comes back to Florida so he can be close to the kids. He's doing his best to move on in his personal Life and in 2017, Jared meets a woman named Kirsten on a dating app. They get married that October and have two kids of their own. Bexley, born in 2019 and London born in 2021. Jared and Shanna share custody over the twins and they stay with Jared and Kirsten every other week. On the Wednesdays that Abigail and Liam aren't staying with him, Jared picks him up and takes them out for a date night, usually a quick dinner and maybe dessert. On the night of February 16, 2022, Jared goes out with the kids, then drops the nine year old twins off at Shanna's house in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. Bexley joined them for this date night and with the two year old secure in the backseat of his SUV, Jared heads back to their house in nearby St. Augustine. On his way back, he calls his wife Kirsten to chat and tells her everyone had a good time and that he should be home. Soon after that, Jared continues along his usual route, but there's a tire in the middle of the road blocking his car. Jared stops a car to move the tire, but when he steps out of the suv, someone fires a gun at him multiple times. One shot misses Bexley by inches, another hits Jared and he falls dead on the ground next to his car with the driver's door wide open. It's not long before other drivers come down the road and several call 911. A good Samaritan makes sure Bexley is safe while officers inspect the scene. Based on how close the shell casings are to Jared's body, it's clear the shooter was at close range. But unfortunately, nobody else was around when Jared was attacked, so nobody saw who shot him. But as investigators put the pieces together, they start to believe this was a targeted kill. Jared was driving down a quiet one way street along a dark, quiet stretch of road with no houses. Detectives believe that someone baited him with a tire so he had to stop and get out to move it. Giving the killer an opportunity to attack. But the question remains, who would want him dead? Detectives start tracking down leads, and they locate security footage of a blue Ford F150 pickup truck leaving the scene around the time of the shooting. While they search for the truck, the police also take a close look at Jared's ex wife, Shanna, and her new husband, a guy named Mario Fernandez. Shana had met Mario at the gym while she was still married to Jared, and according to her, that was the beginning of the end of their marriage. When police bring them in for individual interviews on March 1, 2022, about two weeks after Jared's murder, Mario claims that there are a lot of people who didn't like Jared. And according to some of Mario's neighbors, he is one of them. One person says that while they don't think Mario personally killed Jared, he might have helped plan it. And when investigators talk to Shanna and Mario's friends a few months later in June 2022, she says something that really gets their attention. The woman says that Shanna once said Mario had offered to get some friends to break into Jared's house to kill him and Doug.
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Experian. In the aftermath of Jared Breitegan's murder, investigators zero in on his ex wife Shanna Gardner and her new husband, Mario Fernandez. One of Shanna and Mario's friends says that Shanna once told her that that Mario had offered to take care of Jared. However, there's no evidence that either of them were involved with Jared's murder. And police are still looking for the blue pickup truck that was spotted near the crime scene. In the summer of 2022, they finally track it down and discover a dark connection to Mario Fernandez. On July 18, 2022, the police visit a rental house that Mario owns in Jacksonville. As they chat with the tenant, the officers notice a spare tire leaning against the house. The tenant gives them permission to take it. And while they load the tire into their truck, someone else drives up to the house. A guy named Henry Tenen, who used to rent a house from Mario. They all chat for a little bit before the officers go on their way. They take the tire in for testing, and it matches the one found at the scene of Jared's murder. They go back to the house, and the tenant tells them that Henry Tennant's father owns a blue pickup just like the one in the security footage. So the police start looking into Henry, and the cell phone records place him near the scene on the night of Jared's murder. And a few weeks later, in August 2022, Henry is arrested on unrelated charges. While he's behind bars, investigators keep digging. And on October 14, 2022, they discover that Mario Fernandez had written Henry three checks totaling $10,000 in the months following Jared's death. This is a major lead. And in January 2023, Henry Tenen is arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder, second degree murder with a weapon, and accessory after the fact to a capital felony. And the authorities are pretty sure they know who he's conspiring with. Records show that Henry and Mario had communicated by phone over 70 times in the months surrounding Jared's death. On March 16, 2022, Henry agrees to a plea deal and to testify against Mario, who was arrested the same day. Mario is charged with first degree murder, conspiracy, solicitation, and child abuse because the crimes were in front of Jared's two year old daughter, Bexley, and could have harmed her. As prosecutors get their cases ready, there's just one more piece of the puzzle. Jared's ex wife, Shanna. They're confident she was in on the plot to kill Jared. And in August 2023, Shanna is arrested and charged with the same crimes as Mario. Prosecutors say that a lot of evidence they've uncovered will come out during the trial, which is currently scheduled for August 3, 2026. But just last month, they released some evidence, including audio from a woman who spoke out against Shanna and Mario. She said Mario told her he was in the military and had killed people before. They also released body cam footage of Mario being pulled over six months before his arrest and being told his phones and other electronic devices are being seized. We will probably be learning a lot more in the lead up to the trial and we will be paying close attention to Henry Tennant's testimony because in January 2025 he said his previous testimony was false and requested a new lawyer. At the end of all of this, we can only hope that everyone involved in Jared Breitigan's murder is brought to justice. I can't imagine the pain his wife and kids are going through, especially his little daughter Bexley, who was forced to witness the attack. We'll be following this case closely and as always bring you all of the major updates. This next case comes on the heels of a recent uptick in executions in the state of Florida and concerns the fate of a 72 year old death row inmate named Samuel Smithers. Samuel's nickname is the Deacon of Death and he was sentenced to die for the brutal 1996 murders of Denise Roach and Christy Cowan. As of this recording, he's scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in just a few days on October 14th. So how did we get here? Denise Roach had moved to the United States from Jamaica when she was a little girl. She had a rough upbringing and started using drugs before before she was even 13. When she got older, she turned to sex work to support her two young kids. Denise was small but mighty. She was five feet tall and 100 pounds and people knew her as New York because of her famous temper. The other victim was Christy Cowan who was raised in a middle class home in Connecticut and dreamed of becoming a nurse. But after she failed her admissions test she became depressed and developed an addiction to crack cocaine. Her struggles over the next few years put a huge strain on her family and by 1996 Christy's ex boyfriend had taken their kids and she had turned to sex work in order to get by. Both Denise and Kristi wanted to turn their lives around but they never got the chance because they met Sam Smithers in 1995. Sam is considered to be an upstanding member of his community. He's a devoted family man and and a deacon at his church in Plant City, Florida. That year Sam's hired by one of his fellow churchgoers, Marian Whitehurst, to work as a caretaker on her vacant 27 acre property. Her land is enclosed by a fence and has a gate at the front which she gives Sam the key to. She thinks he does a good job maintaining it so she renews his contract in 1996. On May 28th of that year, around 7pm Marion decides to head over to check on her property. The Gate is locked, so she opens it, then drives down the road to the house to find Sam's truck parked outside the carport. She peeks inside and sees Sam sitting there cleaning an ax. He claims he came back to prune some tree branches. But while they're talking, Marion notices a pool of blood on the floor of the garage. Sam tries to explain it away and suggests someone must have hunted a small animal on her property and tells her he'll clean it up, no problem. And in the moment, Marion lets the topic go. But a little later, she still can't get that pool of blood out of her head. So she calls the sheriff's department. That same night, a deputy meets Marion at her property. Sam has cleaned up the blood as promised, but while looking around, the deputy finds drag marks going away from the carport. He follows them through the grass to one of the property's three ponds. And that's where he finds what will later be identified as Kristy Cowan's dead body floating in the water. The deputy calls in for help, and more officers descend on the scene. This includes a dive team. They search the pond and end up finding a second dead female body who was later identified as Denise Roach. Investigators determined that when they discovered Kristi's body, she had only been dead for a few hours. Meanwhile, Denise had been in the pond for about seven to 10 days. With two dead bodies found on the property, investigators take the search into the house. In one of the bedrooms, they find a condom wrapper and a semen stain on the carpet. DNA testing shows that it could have been Sam and Denise. They also confirmed the bloodstain in the carport was consistent with Denise's DNA. And Sam left a fingerprint in the kitchen along with shoe prints by the pond. That night, two officers go to Sam's house and ask to bring him in for an interview. After questioning him for almost three hours, the police request to come back the next morning for a polygraph test, which he does, and he fails miserably. Sam confesses to the murders. He says he killed Kristi after she tried to extort money from him and that he'd killed Denise after she trespassed on Marion's property and hit him. Whether these stories were true or not, they were still a confession. And it's enough for Sam to be arrested and charged with Kristi and Denise's murders. The police perform a thorough investigation and soon realize what really happened. They determined that Denise and Christy had both engaged in sex work at a nearby motel where Sam had hired them. Then he brought them to Marion's property, where he killed them with an ax, their blood pooling in the carport before dumping their bodies in the pond. Christy's movements are corroborated by a fellow sex worker who gave Kristy a condom that matched the rapper found at the scene. And security cameras at the convenience store recorded her and Sam together on their way to the property, and forensic evidence places Sam with both women at the scene as well. At the trial, Sam tried to give another version of events where a mysterious man referred to only as Mr. X blackmailed Sam into letting him use the property for drug deals. He claimed Mr. X had killed Christy and Denise and forced Sam to get rid of the bodies. But the jury wasn't buying it, and on June 25, 1999, Sam was found guilty for both murders. When it comes to his sentencing, Christy Cowan's father flies down from Connecticut to express his wish that Sam is not sentenced to death. But when the judge considers all the mitigating factors, it's not enough to tip the scales. Sam receives the death sentence. After that, he spends the next two and a half decades on death row until Governor Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant on September 12, 2025. His execution is scheduled for October 14, just a few days from now. Besides the heinous nature of Samuel Smithers crimes, his pending death is especially newsworthy because it would mark the 14th execution in Florida this year before 2025, the most in a year since 1976 was 8, which is when the death penalty was reinstated. On September 29, his lawyers filed an appeal heel, saying that killing their 72 year old client would constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Florida and U.S. constitutions. This motion has been denied once already and at the time of this recording it hasn't been ruled on. So we'll be monitoring the situation and we'll be sure to bring you any major updates. What did you think of today's case? Drop your thoughts and theories in the comments. We'll see you next time. If you haven't already, subscribe to our YouTube channel @Crime House Daily and follow us on social media at crimehouse24.7 for real time updates. Because the pursuit of justice never stops.