Belinda Gardner was a woman suspected of murdering John Byrne, the husband of Adele Byrne, who was also a suspect in the murder of Gardner's husband.
History[]
Belinda married Randall, a real estate broker, for a rich lifestyle, which Randall accommodated for a while out of his altruism. His sister Janette never got along with Belinda, knowing she was gold digger and Randall's heart of gold was being taken advantage of. Randall eventually tried to curb Belinda's spending by buying her a coffee shop to run, but he also ended up putting her on allowance.
Belinda wanted Randall dead for the inheritance, and Adele, a regular customer, wanted her delivery man husband John dead for his affairs with other women. They each agreed to almost untraceable murders, where they'd purchase revolvers of the same caliber, shoot each other's husband, and dispose of the guns to throw police off their trails and cast reasonable doubt on other suspects. The murders were successfully executed within a week, but the women were arrested and taken to consecutive trials once their conspiracy was discovered.
Although she was acquitted of Adele's husband's murder by planting the murder weapon in another suspect's workplace, ADA McCoy convinced Adele, who was convicted, to turn against her, allowing him to charge Gardner with the murder-for-hire of her own husband. Beaten, she agreed to McCoy's offer of 20 years to life in prison, but gloated that a jury had still found her not guilty at her first trial. (L&O: "C.O.D.")