Karla Espinal

Karla Espinal was a beautiful Cuban that Jerry met in Kentucky, through a lawyer friend with the nickname, “Lying Larry.” It was an apt name as Jerry would later regrettably discover. Karla soon became his mistress and moved into his palatial home in Fort Lauderdale. She wasn’t aware of this but he also had another mistress who would fly from Colombia and spend the weekend with him at a Miami hotel, but that’s another story.  Jerry wasn’t sure he could trust Karla and after his smuggling organization came crumbling around his feet, he began to suspect that she had betrayed him.  Later, after his arrest she convinced him they should get married so she couldn’t be forced to testify against him. This was a mistake because she began taking his money, money he had stashed away, and running wild. She had a good friend, a woman named Bonnie Anders, who had worked for Jerry as a wire-tap expert.  She had even helped arrange the tapping of the federal grand jury room so Jerry would know who was saying what.  (Jerry was never found guilty of any of this because there was no proof of his direct involvement.) Bonnie and Karla began their own cocaine operation, using Jerry’s Colombian contacts .As soon as Jerry learned what she was doing, he divorced her. When she was caught, as an act of retribution, and a way to gain her freedom, she went over to the feds and began feeding them both truth and lies. Whatever they wanted to hear, she was more than ready to provide. So, new charges, including RICO, were brought against him, and Karla was the star witness.   Not only did she testify against him, she testified against the Colombians, so she was forced to enter the witness protection program. I’ve been unable to learn if she’s still alive, but Bonnie is living in Kentucky.