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Hell Night
Hell Night
Season 3
Number 6
Writer Steven Maeda,
Corey Miller
Director Scott Lautanen
Original Airdate October 25, 2004
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Previous Episode: Legal
Next Episode: Crime Wave

Hell Night is the sixth episode in Season Three of CSI: Miami.

Synopsis[]

The wife of a famous Miami baseball player is killed in her home and her husband is charged with the crime. The jury on the case visits the crime scene, and the ball player is found dead with a meat clever in his back and a note that says "guilty". Meanwhile Horatio gets a call from Yelina saying her son has not returned, and asks Horatio to seek him, then discovered that Yelina's son is involved in the murder of a homeless man.

Plot[]

A group of jurors is brought to the house of Donny Lopez, a professional baseball player who stands accused of stabbing his wife, Miranda, to death. Lopez is present as well, something the jurors aren't entirely comfortable with. As the jurors are led through the house, they are interrupted by screams. One of the jurors, Ginger Wadley, lays convulsing on the floor, apparently in the middle of a seizure. The jurors are sent back to the kitchen, where they make a horrifying discovery: Donny Lopez lies dead on the floor, a butcher knife protruding from his skull. On the body is a single sheet of paper with the word "guilty" written on it.

When Alexx examines the body, she notes that he was struck from behind and likely never saw his killer coming. She's noticeably short with Ryan Wolfe, who points out that he knows that the Lopez case was Tim Speedle's and that Alexx and Speed were close. Ryan tells Alexx that he's not trying to replace Speed; he just wants to do a good job. Alexx bristles and tells him she's not looking for any new friends, but then she relents and tells him to look over the body. Ryan finds a cat hair on the victim from what he suspects is a Persian cat. Outside the house, Delko examines the jurors for evidence. A very ticked off juror, Carl Tepper, tells Delko he believes Lopez's murder was "poetic justice." Inside the house, Horatio finds evidence that the framed photos in the house were replaced. The defense attorney admits to redressing the home, but says someone must have come back afterwards and put back the knives, which he claims to have hid. Before Horatio can continue, his cell phone rings. Yelina, on a trip with Stetler, says her mother called and said Ray, Jr. never came home. After telling Horatio that Ray has been hanging out with some troubled kids, she asks Horatio to go find him. Horatio finds the boys near a bay, shooting a paint gun at a trash can. Horatio breaks the group up and sends the boys home. He tells Ray that his new friend, Chris Owens, is a vandal who has priors for disorderly conduct.

Delko finds a print on the butcher knife, but the blood has pooled around it, not in it, indicating the print was present before the knife was used to kill Lopez. The print matches the Lopezs' daughter, Chelsea. Calleigh talks to the girl, who seems to resent her father. Her grandparents made her visit him once a week. Chelsea has a Persian cat, so it's likely the hair transferred to Lopez when she hugged him. Chelsea admits to redressing the house before the jurors arrived. Calleigh asks for a list of the things she moved, and also for a page from her notebook. Cynthia Wells tells Calleigh the paper from Chelsea's notebook doesn't match the one the killer left. Calleigh and Cynthia examine the paper and find indentations in the paper from writing on other pages. The writing is notes from the trial: the killer is a juror. Horatio visits Alexx in the morgue, where he makes a disturbing discovery. Next to Danny Lopez's body is the corpse of Martin Connor, a transient with red paint splotches on his jacket. When Alexx tells Horatio that Connor was literally scared to death, Horatio's concern grows.

Calleigh and Delko go through the jurors pictures and personal items. Eric finds evidence of a page torn from Carl Tepper's notebook. When questioned about it, Carl denies killing Lopez. He says that the jurors had to leave their notebooks behind at the end of each day. Anyone could have taken that page. Carl's story matches the evidence: his handwriting isn't a match for the killer's. Horatio has Ray, Jr. and his friends rounded up. He sends the other boys away with other officers and questions Ray alone. Ray says he and his friends were just having fun. Though he admits that they shot the homeless man with the paint gun, he won't name anyone specifically as the shooter. Ray claims all the boys, including him, shot at the man. Ryan and Calleigh focus in on Ginger, the one person who couldn't have committed the murder. Her seizure becomes suspicious however when they learn she's not taking her anti-seizure medicine and has recently been involved in four lawsuits related to her seizures. When they question her, Ryan finds a blinking light on her key chain, which she used to induce the seizure. When pressed, she admits that she was hired to have a seizure and get kicked off the jury, forcing the judge to declare a mistrial.

Calleigh zeroes in on a suspect: Donny's girlfriend Kelly, who was with him the night of Miranda's murder. She wanted the trial ended so that she didn't have to testify and jeopardize her engagement to her wealthy fiancé. Her handwriting isn't a match for the killer's note, either. Calleigh, Ryan and Delko go back to the list of jurors. Calleigh muses that the jurors all would have access to Speedle's crime scene photos of the house. Calleigh decides the CSI team has to go back to the house. State's Attorney Rebecca Nevins, who will be handling the case against Ray, Jr. and the rest of the boys, introduces herself to Horatio. She tells him that the other three boys gave Ray up as the shooter. Skeptical, Horatio goes over the contents of the car, which includes a video camera. Horatio and Tyler go over the tape, which shows the shooting of the homeless man with the paint gun. Though they aren't able to see who did the shooting, Tyler isolates a sound wave of Ray's voice, saying "Stop it, Chris." Chris Owens was the shooter.

Back at the house, the CSIs go over Speed's sketches, which the killer must have used. But the house isn't quite the same as when those sketches were made a year ago. A broken pocket door was fixed, and a face print indicates the killer collided with it, not knowing it was fixed. The face print matches one of the jurors: Jim Wilson. Wilson tries to claim he wen to the bathroom, but Calleigh quickly points out that the water was shut off in the house. Finally, he breaks down and admits the trial was ruining his life: his wife left him, she took his children, and he lost his job. While Wilson explains his motives, Calleigh studies the photo of the murder weapon from Miranda's case, and is surprised by how little blood is on the knife. She tells Delko she doesn't think Danny killed his wife.

Calleigh hashes it out with the states attorney for the case, Bob Villa. He's angry that she wants to go back and reevaluate the case, but Calleigh holds her ground. Calleigh and Alexx go over the case together, and Calleigh points out that the shallow stab wounds indicate that someone without a lot of upper body strength killed Miranda. Her killer was probably a woman, which leads Calleigh back to Kelly. But Kelly was with Donny while Miranda was being killed, outside with him in his car. Calleigh goes back to Chelsea. Chelsea first claims she was asleep in her room, but then she relents and admits she saw her father out in the car with Kelly. She went in and told her mother about it, but Miranda wouldn't believe her. Calleigh says the evidence indicates Miranda was asking Chelsea to give her the knife, her hand outstretched. Chelsea breaks down and says she just wanted her parents to be happy. She says she misses her mother everyday.

Horatio and Ray, Jr. talk about Martin Connor, whose face Ray can't stop picturing. Ray sadly notes that Horatio never comes around anymore, and Horatio tells him that he's trying to give Yelina some space. But Ray lights up when Horatio suggests the two go on a fishing trip over the upcoming weekend. Yelina and Stetler arrive and lead Ray off. Stetler takes Yelina's hand as Horatio watches quietly.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

  • Rex Linn as Frank Tripp
  • David Lee Smith as Rick Stetler
  • Christina Chang as Rebecca Nevins
  • Alex Buck as Raymond Caine Jr
  • Brian Poth as Tyler Jenson
  • Julie Skon as Lori Parker
  • J. August Richards as State Attorney Bob Villa
  • Sterling Macer, Jr as Carl Tepper-Juror #11
  • Martin Grey as Jim Wilson-Juror# 3
  • Susan Ward as Ginger Wadley
  • Kendall Schmidt as Dominic Abeyta
  • Vincent Angell as Leonard Jakes
  • Lester James Brandt as Donny Lopez
  • Elisa Leonetti as Miranda Lopez
  • Alyssa Diaz as Chelsea Lopez
  • Brooke Bloom as Cynthia Wells
  • Daniel Smith as Michael Cyger
  • Alex Black as Christopher Owens
  • Caitlin Mowrey as Kelli Fritz
  • Christina Chang as Rebecca Nelson
  • Shelli Bergh as Paula Muro
  • Eddie 'Doogie' Conna as Bus Driver

Major Events[]

  • State Attorney Rebecca Nevins is introduced for the time.
  • First appearance of Alex Buck as Raymond Caine Jr.

Trivia[]

  • Jonathan Togo, who plays Ryan Wolfe, is added to the main opening credits, having been a Guest Star since his debut episode, "Under the Influence".
  • The episode's case takes details from the murder of Nicole Brown, who's widely believed to have been killed by her ex-husband, football star O.J. Simpson, despite Simpson's acquittal for her murder.
  • Ray Jr.'s involvement in the homeless man's killing is inspired by the Anchorage paintball attacks, where teens similar shot at indigenous Americans with paintballs while driving around.

See Also[]

CSI:Miami Season 3
Lost SonPro PerUnder the InfluenceMurder in a FlashLegalHell NightCrime WaveSpeed KillsPiratedAfter the FallAddictionShootoutCop KillerOne Night StandIdentityNothing to LoseMoney PlaneGame OverSex & TaxesKiller DateRecoilVengeanceWhacked10-7
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