| Minor Character: Miami | |
 | |
| Name | Karla Gardner |
| Gender | Female |
| City | Miami |
| Pathology | Murderer Robber Incriminator |
| Modus Operandi | Stabbing |
| No. of Victims | 1 killed 1 attempted to frame |
| Status | Incarcerated |
| Portrayed By | Myndy Crist |
| First Appearance | Identity |
Karla Gardner is a victim of identity theft and later a murderer.
History[]
Gardner's identity was stolen by Eve Martinkus when her loan application was dug out by Martinkus from her trash. For a year and a half, her information was used at Martinkus' free-willing exploitation, which further strained Gardner's funds since her ex-husband Philip was making her pay alimony despite her wages being narrowly close to failing to accommodate.
When a purse snatcher jumps her and she gives chase, Martinkus arrives when the thief is arrested and takes the purse for herself, using a Federal Trade Commission document she forged or stole from Gardner as part of her ruse. But Gardner arrives and shows even more documents, provoked from her purse being left to Martinkus instead. To identify Gardner, a scanner is used to identify past fractures in her arm and leg. Martinkus is arrested, but the prosecutor releases Martinkus on grounds of allegedly insufficient evidence.
Gardner finally snaps and decides to stop both Martinkus and Philip. Gardner swipes Martinkus' nail file from her car and then takes hairs from her seat with a lint roller. Luring Philip for a confrontation in his car, she then stabs his eye all the way into his brain with the nail file. Martinkus' hairs are left in his hand to frame her. Gardner conveniently arrives at the scene later and alleges the alimony was draining Martinkus' finances, not Gardner's.
Martinkus is horrified by the set up and gives up her real name and her frauds and thefts, denying the murder. Adhesive on the hairs and only one with a follicle, which is lost only when the hair is pulled out, reveals Gardner's setup. She confesses in interrogation, and when told she destroyed her own life for good, she impassively rebuffs the remark and watches Martinkus' arrest through the window. Gardner is soon after arrested and incarcerated.
Known Victims[]
- Philip Gardner (her ex-husband; stabbed in the eye with Martinkus' nail file while in his car, left Martinkus' hairs in his hand postmortem)
- Eve Martinkus (the identity thief that stole her info; stole her nail file and hairs, leaving it at Philip's murder scene to frame her)