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Double Jeopardy
Double Jeopardy
Season 4
Number 18
Writer Brian L. Davidson
Director Scott Lautanen
Original Airdate March 13, 2006
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Previous Episode: Collision
Next Episode: Driven

Double Jeopardy is the eighteenth episode in Season Four of CSI: Miami.

Synopsis[]

The Miami-Dade district attorney loses a highly publicized murder trial in which a husband is accused of killing his young bride and then dumping her body in a lake. However, the woman's body is recovered from a lake after the trial concludes and the 'double jeopardy' clause precludes the husband from being tried again. Now, as the CSIs fear that justice may not be served, new evidence suggests that the husband may have practiced on another victim first.

Plot[]

It's the day of the verdict in the Stephen Rowe murder case. The wealthy young man is on trial for the murder of his wife Melissa, whose body was never found. State's Attorney Monica West has worked hard to build the case, noting that Stephen was having an affair with a woman named Allison Grady and waited three days to report his wife missing. The suspected murder weapon, a large kitchen knife, has a broken off tip, and four weights are missing from Stephen's personal collection that may have been used to weigh Melissa's body down. As the jury delivers a 'not guilty' verdict, a fisherman pulls Melissa's body from the water after inadvertently catching it in his net. Melissa's devastated father, Richard Bowman, watches the CSIs take his daughter's body away, but Horatio holds him back. Alexx takes the body back to the morgue, and points out to Calleigh that Melissa's fingers have been severed. She notices that Melissa is wearing pantyhose, something no one from Miami would wear in the hot, sticky weather. Using the micro CT scanner, Calleigh compares the knife marks on Melissa's bones to ones she's made with the knife with the broken tip from the Rowe's kitchen. It's a match. Delko goes for a dive near where the body was found and discovers the weights used to hold Melissa's body down.

Horatio confronts Stephen with the new evidence, but Stephen knows he can't be tried twice for the same crime, and angrily tells Horatio that Melissa was no angel. Bothered by the comment, Horatio sends Ryan to look at Stephen's laptop, which the lab still has from the trial, and discovers a bunch of Nazi propaganda. Stephen was a racist, and had no idea when he married Melissa that his new wife was half-black. Bowman tells Horatio that Stephen exploded when he discovered Melissa's mother, who died when she was just a baby, was black. Horatio believes that learning the news was what made Stephen decide to kill Melissa, and decides to see if he can build a case for the Federal Prosecutor so that Melissa's murder can be tried as a hate crime. Monica West is skeptical. Calleigh is bothered by the fact that the knife tip was broken off, and Delko points out he only found two of the four missing weights from Rowe's collection. Could Rowe have murdered before killing Melissa, maybe done a practice run? The CSIs go over the missing persons/unsolved murder cases during the time between when Rowe found out about Melissa's heritage and when she disappeared. They come up with a neighbor, Debra Massey, and decide to question the man held in the killing, Ethan Gaffney.

Ethan was Debra's flight instructor, and he claims the only reason he's being held for the murder is because he was the last person to see her alive. The ME's office has her body exhumed and Alexx goes over it. Debra isn't missing any fingers, and the knife marks on her bones don't match those from Rowe's knife. Additionally, marks on her wrist indicate she was tied down with a type of chain used in airplanes, proving that Ethan did indeed kill her. Ryan and Delko uncover a newspaper article that inaccurately reported that Debra's fingers were cut off, and they suspect Rowe was trying to duplicate the murder to make it look like Melissa's killer was a copycat. Calleigh and Ryan question Damon Sloane, who is frustrated at being questioned again, but he does mention that Stephen talked to a woman named Theresa Barton, who soon moved out—and left all of her stuff. Ryan and Calleigh decide to look at Theresa as a missing person and go through the items she left behind. They find a movie rental card despite the fact that Theresa didn't own a DVD or VCR, and Ryan notes it looks like it was used to pick a lock.

Horatio and Tripp go to Allison's house in search of Steve, but they discover blood on the door frame and no sign of Allison. They haul Steve in but all he'll say is that he and Allison had a fight. He claims he didn't kill her, and prints from the blood on the door frame back him up—they belong to Richard Bowman, Melissa's father. Horatio and Tripp head to Bowman's house and find him watching videos of Melissa as a child. He sadly admits to them that he found Allison hurt after the fight with Stephen and took her from the house. Bowman feared Allison would be killed by Stephen just as his daughter was. Horatio sympathizes, but knows that the choice rests with Allison. When she's found, Allison wants to go right back to Stephen—she's convinced he's not a killer. Horatio tells her that Stephen is in custody while they investigate his connection to Theresa Barton's disappearance.

First the CSIs have to locate her body, so they look to the same lake where Debra Massey's body was found. It's no longer a lake—it's been drained to be used as a landfill, but the CSIs get permission to search for Theresa's body. Sure enough, with the help of a Ground Penetrating Radar, Delko is able to locate her body. It's exhumed and brought to Alexx. Alexx notes that Theresa's fingers are missing, and is able to recover the knife tip from one of her bones. It's over for Stephen Rowe—he'll stand trial for Theresa's murder. Calleigh is still bothered by the pantyhose found on Melissa Rowe's body, and when she finds a fingernail in one of them, she sends it off for DNA analysis, and gets back some surprising results. Horatio and Calleigh bring Allison in for questioning. They've figured it out: Stephen chickened out of killing Melissa, so Allison was the one who had to do it. Monica West is surprised to have three new cases in her lap, but Horatio shows her one he's keeping for the federal prosecutor: the hate crime case against Stephen Rowe, which he hopes will bring Richard Bowman peace.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

  • Rex Linn as Frank Tripp
  • Eva LaRue as Natalia Boa Vista
  • Boti Ann Bliss as Maxine Valera
  • Bellamy Young as Monica West
  • Natalie Denise Sperl as Melissa Bowman Rowe
  • Brad Rowe as Stephen Rowe
  • David Andrews as Richard Bowman
  • Shalisse Pekacik as Debra Massey
  • Tim Snay as Defense Attorney
  • Polly Shannon as Allison Grady
  • Van Epperson as Judge Robeson
  • Allan Louis as Andrew Keston
  • Erik Passoja as Ethan Gaffney
  • Nick Stab as Damon Slone
  • Shelli Bergh as Paula Muro
  • Dig Wayne as Construction Foreman (uncredited)

See Also[]

CSI:Miami Season 4
From the GraveBlood in the WaterPrey (Miami)48 Hours to LifeThree-WayUnder SuspicionFelony FlightNailedUrban HellraisersShatteredPaybackThe ScoreSilencerFade OutSkeletonsDeviantCollisionDouble JeopardyDrivenFree FallDead AirOpen WaterShockRampageOne of Our Own
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