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Main Character: Miami
E Delko
Name Eric Delko
Gender Male
Birth Date December 19, 1976
Family Pavel Delko (Father)
Three Unnamed Sisters
Unnamed Niece
Calleigh Duquesne (Girlfriend)
Austin North (Adopted Son with Calleigh)
Patty North (Adopted Daughter with Calleigh)
Marisol Delko-Caine (Sister, Deceased)
Horatio Caine (Brother in Law)
Kyle Harmon (Nephew)
City Miami
Job Crime Scene Investigator
Rank CSI Level 3
Specialty Tire tracks
Fingerprints
Drug ID
Diving/Water Recovery and Rescue
Status Alive
Portrayed By Adam Rodriguez
First Appearance Season 1-Season 10

Eric Delko is a Crime Scene Investigator working for the Miami-Dade Crime Lab. He is a Level 3 CSI, specializing in fingerprint and drug identification.

In "Shattered", Delko's job is endangered when he is arrested for drug possession, but it is discovered that the marijuana was for his sister Marisol to ease the pain of her leukemia treatments. Marisol was murdered by a Mala Noche sniper after she married Delko's boss, Horatio Caine. Eric is also the team's underwater recovery expert. While trying to rescue a woman kidnapped by escapee Clavo Cruz, Delko was critically wounded by one of Cruz's henchmen. He survived and rejoined the team.

Delko left the team temporarily in season eight but returned to the series temporarily in Delko for the Defense, when he consulted a defense lawyer in a murder case.

Personality

His best friend is Ryan Wolfe and his girlfriend is Calleigh.

His personailty is kind and caring. He takes things personally, especially cases which he feels strongly about.

Skills and Abilities

Eric Delko is the fingerprint, tires and drug identification expert of the Miami-Dade Crime Lab, as well as their underwater recovery expert. Delko has a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Miami, where he played right field for the baseball team (and is a former college classmate of wildlife conservationist Jeff Corwin) and is fluent in Spanish.

Delko often acts as a diver for the CSI team, and has tried to get Ryan Wolfe to train as a diver on several occasions.

Early Life

Eric's father, Pavel Delektorsky, was a Russian national who had been assigned to Havana during the 1960s, married a Cuban woman, with whom he had three daughters. When his mother was pregnant with Eric, his father decided that he wanted a better life for his family, so he moved the clan to Miami not long after, and shortened the family name to Delko in an effort at Americanization.

It has been recently revealed that Eric was born in Cuba before his mother and adoptive father arrived in the USA before receiving fake birth documents for him. Delko pressed his mother for the truth after he revealed that he knew his American birth certificate was a forgery, and had acquired his real birth certificate from Cuba. He told her he became suspicious after realizing several key facts in the story of their arrival in the US changing each time she told it. Also she told him that his biological father was a terrible man, and wanted to shield Eric from him by hiding his identity with the forged papers. It was Delko's biological father, in fact, who had ordered the hit on him.

In the season 8 opener, it was revealed in a flashback that Eric discovered a BMW that was dumped in the Everglades with a body in the rear, and called Detective Caine. Eric was a tow truck driver at the time and was on a quest to find sunglasses for Caine. As he knew the area quite well, he helped Caine recover the murder weapon which Caine used to prevent an innocent man from going to jail. In this same episode, Eric meets Calleigh and hits on her by saying "Are you going to give me your number now or later?" Calleigh's response is that she doesn't date people she's even remotely involved with at work, and Eric replies "Ok, for now." Caine, impressed by Eric's eye for the minute details, convinces him to go to the police academy, get his badge and work for the new CSI team later.

Season Seven

In the Season 7 opener, Delko and Duquesne are especially confused and angered by Caine's shooting, and Wolfe's handling of the situation immediately after their arrival on-scene. Delko later found out, however, that this was all staged by Caine, Wolfe, and the ATF to allow Caine to go undercover and apprehend a major ammunition distributor in Miami. Eric was still somewhat hurt that Caine would choose Wolfe over him, but Horatio told him in person that the decision to include Wolfe over him was due in no small part to Caine's desire to protect Delko and his career at the Lab should the undercover operation prove unsuccessful.

In the season 7 finale he attempts to help his Cuban father escape from the grips of the Russian Mob. However, the CSI's arrive on the scene and Calleigh shoots at the car he is helping his father escape in before she realizes that Delko is in fact the driver. When they reach it after it crashes, it is covered in blood, which his father claims is Eric's. In the next episode it is revealed he is alive and is wandering in the Everglades.

Season Eight

In season eight, episode five ("Bad Seed"), Eric left the CSI team for many personal reasons. Horatio left a note on his windshield saying, "I'll always be here. H."

A few episodes later, Delko returns in the episode Delko for the Defense as a special guest star, to become an expert witness for defense against his former team. In the beginning of the episode, it was revealed that he was in Puerto Rico. He then tells Calleigh that he missed living in Miami and decided to come back. In the middle of the episode, Calleigh tells him that the district attorney is looking for a forensics expert and Delko tells her that he will think about whether or not he wants to get his job back. In the end of the episode, Delko discusses things with the D.A. and may be asking to return to the CSI team (music prevents the viewers from hearing the conversation).

Relationships

Eric has been involved with a number of women, including co-worker Natalia Boa Vista (who at one point thought she might be pregnant with their child in Skeletons. Despite Natalia's apparent duplicity (he told an FBI agent that she slept with him to get information regarding the lab), he remains protective of her when her ex-husband harasses her at crime scenes under the pretext of performing his duties as crime scene cleanup ("Throwing Heat").

He has a close relationship with colleague Calleigh Duquesne; they care very greatly for each other - Calleigh is the one by his side when Eric is in the hospital, gravely injured ("Man Down") - Calleigh and Eric are now in a relationship. Despite any appearance of womanizing on his part, Eric Delko is actually protective of women in general, standing up for them against abusive men.

Delko also maintained a friendship with fellow CSI Tim Speedle, who is killed in a shootout when his firearm jams because of poor maintenance ("Lost Son"). It had been Speedle that 'welcomed' a rookie Delko to the lab with a friendly hazing ("Speed Kills"). Eric is at first deeply resentful of Speedle's replacement, Ryan Wolfe, especially when some of Speedle's previous cases comes under review ("Hell Night";"Whacked"). For some time, there is a measure of verbal sniping between the two. At one time, Ryan is called in to a crime scene on his day off when Delko does not come and is injured when a suspect shoots him in the eye with a nail gun. Unsurprisingly, Ryan is upset with Eric, but in the end they work out their differences ("Nailed") Eventually, Delko comes to accept Ryan's presence, and they become strong co-workers and friends (and perhaps even more than friends).

Trivia

  • Eric's unit number as MDPD police officer is (at least at the time of Nailed) 529.
  • Eric drinks Cafe Cubano, at a strength Tim Speedle considered to be "rot[ting] [one's] stomach" (Losing Face), and causing OCD-ridden Ryan Wolfe to be twitchy for hours.
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