Manfred von Karma

Of all the prosecutors in the Ace Attorney world, Manfred von Karma is considered the most evil of them all; he is also one of the most diabolical villains in the Ace Attorney series. He is Miles Edgeworth's mentor and the one responsible for teaching him everything about prosecuting, thus resulting in Miles being nicknamed the Demon Prosecutor. Von Karma appears as the prosecutor in Turnabout Goodbyes, the final Case of the original Gyakuten Saiban for the GBA and the penultimate Case of the Nintendo DS version. According to Miles Edgeworth, Manfred Von Karma is 20 times worse than him.

Background
Fifteen years ago, Manfred von Karma had argued a case against esteemed defense lawyer, Gregory Edgeworth. Although he won the case, von Karma was penalized for presenting fabricated evidence; a claim that came from Gregory Edgeworth himself. Von Karma was shocked beyond belief; he had never been penalized before. The one thing he valued most, above all else, was his perfect record. An earthquake struck the courthouse, leaving von Karma wandering in the darkness, trying to find a way out. He felt his way to an elevator and tried to press the button, but nothing happened. All of a sudden, a gunshot rang out and von Karma was struck in the right shoulder, causing him to roar a demonic scream that would haunt the young Miles Edgeworth for years. Then the power came back on, and the elevator doors opened. To his surprise von Karma found a pistol at his feet, along with three people lying unconscious from oxygen deprivation. When he saw that one of the passengers was Gregory Edgeworth, he picked up the gun and shot Mr. Edgeworth in the heart, killing him instantly. He left the gun and fled the scene to take a vacation to heal his injury from the incident. During his vacation, the case of Edgeworth's murder, known as the DL-6 Incident, was held against the bailiff Yanni Yogi who plead temporary insanity to get off the hook.

Trivia

 * "Manfred" may come from the real name of the infamous Red Baron in World War I because he was shot in the right shoulder or because he received only one penalty in his career. "Karma" comes from the bad karma he had built over the years (forging evidence, illegal investigations, false testimonies, etc).

"Karuma" (狩魔) is the Japanese Romanization for "Karma", "Gou" (豪) may come from the word gouka (ゴウカ), which could mean "the effect of karma" or "fires of hell". In kanji terms, "karu ma" (狩 魔) means "a demon which hunts", and Gou comes from erai, which means "great" or "excellent."