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Belinda Gardner and Adele Byrne are the two main antagonists of the Law & Order season finale "C.O.D." Gardner and Byrne are two women who agree to murder each other's husbands in a plot similar to the film Strangers on a Train to cover for themselves.
Gardner was portrayed by Victoria Dillard, and Byrne was portrayed by Elizabeth Conners.
Biography[]
Byrne wanted to get revenge on her husband John for his infidelity, and Gardner wanted her husband Randall's inheritance. Byrne was a frequent customer at Gardner's coffee shop, so they met and agreed to solve each other's problems. They bought identical models of revolvers, each of them planning to kill the other woman's husband and disguise their shootings as random. Separated by weeks apart, and with the women having no concrete connection to each other, they hoped providing each other both murders and alibis would get them what each of them wanted.
Weeks apart, they both followed through with their respective murders, then disposed of the guns. But the guns were tracked, as were the murders and the women's respective motives. In court, the prosecution needed to directly prove they were guilty of the murders, only the gun Byrne used was recovered by then. She was convicted, but Gardner was acquitted. Gardner was then charged with murder-for-hire, especially since the gun was eventually recovered that she used to prove motive and means. Gardner took a plea deal to 20 to life.