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Seeing Red
Seeingred
Season 12
Number 14
Writer Christopher Barbour,
Tom Mularz
Director Frank Waldeck
Original Airdate February 15, 2012
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Previous Episode: Tressed to Kill
Next Episode: Stealing Home

Seeing Red is the fourteenth episode in Season Twelve of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Synopsis[]

Russell asks a former colleague for help when a young man turns up alive with a bullet in his brain and no memory of what has happened to him.

Plot[]

Victims: Wes Clyborn (alive), Elena Perez and Vicky Sheldon (both deceased)

On the case: D.B. Russell, Greg Sanders, Julie Finlay, Morgan Brody, Nick Stokes, Sara Sidle, Louis Vartann

A young man, Wes Clyborn, crashes into a billboard truck. Nick and Morgan, who are across the street when the accident occurs, rush over to help. They pull Wes to safety before the car catches fire. As Nick looks over the body, he sees Wes has been shot twice, once in the head and once in the abdomen; both wounds appear to be the same caliber. Neither CSI remembers hearing any gunshots before the crash. Before being taken to the hospital, Wes tells Nick that "they're bleeding," indicating that there may be another crime scene.

Morgan and Sara process the car, which is registered to an Elena Perez. It appears that she's been living out of the car. Based on the lack of blood spatter and bullet holes, the conclusion is that Wes was shot somewhere else. Figuring that he couldn't have gotten far with the head wound, the CSIs figure the primary scene is within a few square miles.

Det. Vartann tells Russell that Elena was evicted from her place a month ago and that nobody has reported her missing. Wes' cell phone contains a lot of ingoing and outgoing calls, most of which involve his friends. Those friends have never heard of Elena, and nobody knows where Wes was the night he was shot. The last few calls Wes made were all made to the same number; however, the number is untraceable.

In the hospital, a nurse provides Nick with Wes' personal effects along with the bullet that was removed from Wes' abdomen. However, the bullet in his brain is going to have to be removed by a neurosurgeon. The doctor tells Nick that the bullet entered the part of Wes' brain that deals with short-term memory, meaning he's probably not going to remember who shot him. Nick speaks with Wes, who thanks him for saving his life. There are bruises on Wes' hands, meaning he was likely in a fight with someone. Nick and Vartann question Wes' parents. The largely uncooperative duo don't know where their son was and don't recognize Elena from her photo.

Henry processes Wes' bloody shirt and finds contributions from four people: Wes, Elena, Juan Perez (her brother) and an unknown female. Juan is in the system for several crimes, including assault, armed robbery, and carjacking; he was paroled six months ago. Henry can't provide any additional information, but Russell realizes he knows someone who can help—his former colleague in Seattle, Julie Finlay, who is a blood expert. The two have a rocky past, but Russell visits her and asks for her one-time assistance.

Nick is called back to the hospital, as Wes has started to remember some things from the night before. He recalls being in a room with a man who had a gun and escaping by using someone else's car. However, he doesn't remember if either Elena or Juan were there. Wes also remembers another girl being present. When shown a pendant that was in his pocket, Wes remembers the girl's name is Vicky. Nick assures him that they're going to work together to figure out what happened.

Ballistics on the bullet pulled from Wes matches a round fired at a liquor store robbery four weeks ago. Both the shooter and the gun are still in the wind. Greg and Sara figure that this fits Juan's M.O., as does holding two rich kids (Wes and Vicky) at gunpoint. The bullet has DNA from both Wes and the unknown female, meaning it traveled through the female first before entering Wes. Since there was tissue on the bullet, it's possible the female is still alive somewhere.

Julie (or "Finn" as she wants to be called) agrees to help the lab with the case, working as a consultant. Using photos of Wes' bloody shirt, she reconstructs the blood events and maps every inch of the shirt by DNA contributor. She presents her findings to Russell, concluding that there were five different blood events that happened in a particular order. First, Juan fought with Wes. Elena then joined in, and both got their blood on him. Juan then fired a bullet through the unknown female, with her blood spatter also ending up on Wes' shirt. Finally, Wes was shot in the head, where blood dripped onto his shoulder and abdomen. Russell compliments Finn on a job well done and wonders how Wes got shot twice but made it out alive.

Juan is still unaccounted for, but Vartann is able to identify the mystery woman as Vicky Sheldon. As it turns out, Vicky is a former assistant to Jonah Clyborn, Wes' father, and a Christmas photo shows the two of them in a cozy position. Records show that Vicky filed for unemployment two months ago. Vicky's landlord told Vartann that Wes had been spending a lot of time at Vicky's place over the last few months. Nick and Vartann wonder if Jonah found out, got jealous, and hired Juan Perez as a hitman to take out his own son.

In interrogation, Jonah tells Russell that he was unaware that Vicky and his son were dating. Russell reveals that three days ago, a car crashed through the wall outside Vicky's home; by the time the police arrived, the car and driver were gone. The car was a Bentley registered in Jonah's name, but he says that Wes was the one driving it at the time. Russell believes that Wes wrecking a fancy car outside the home of his father's ex-assistant would be enough to set Jonah off, but Jonah denies being involved. In a separate interrogation room, Leslie Clyborn tells Sara that she didn't approve of her son dating Vicky. She had learned that Wes was supplementing Vicky's wages with checks drawn from Jonah's business account; however, Sara hypothesizes that Jonah was actually the one behind this.

Identical work smocks are found in the trunk of Elena's car and in Vicky's apartment, indicating that the women worked together. They definitely knew each other, as well, since Elena's phone number was written on a note in Vicky's place. Greg theorizes that Vicky, who lost out on a lot of money after being fired, got Juan and Elena to help her rob Wes. However, things went bad, and Wes escaped.

Phone records for Wes, Juan and Elena are retrieved. They all made calls at around the same time from the same vicinity, and their coverage overlaps at Arroyo Horizons Business Park, an odd place for young people to be hanging out. When Nick, Sara and Vartann search the place, they find bloody shoe impressions, along with the bodies of Vicky and Elena. Both bodies are cold, and Elena's face has been beaten pretty badly. There's blood spatter all over the walls, and the team knows that they have to track down the one guy who walked out of there seemingly unscathed—Juan.

Vicky is confirmed to have been shot with a through-and-through, while just about every bone in Elena's face has been smashed. Her wounds show a distinctive pattern, and Nick determines that they came from a metal replica of the Las Vegas sign. He finds a bloody one on the ground nearby and sees a partial palm print on it. Sara spots a knee impression in the blood next to Elena's body, along with a shoe impression. The impression, which is from a work boot, doesn't match the dress shoes Wes was wearing. Nick and Sara follow the impressions to the back door, with evidence showing that the perpetrator was running. Outside near the loading bay, they see tire treads in the pavement, indicating that the driver got out of there in a hurry. There's red paint transfer on a rail, and Nick finds white trace in one of the shoe impressions.

The white trace comes back as baking soda that's used in industrial cleaning supplies, while the red paint is found to be used exclusively on one vehicle model—a 1955-1957 Austin Healy B-100. Greg puts the two things together, figuring out that their mystery person was soda blasting, which is used by auto-detailing places to prep a car that's about to be repainted. They figure that Juan may have borrowed the car from a high-end detailing shop. Juan is found working at the shop and is caught while trying to run after being confronted.

Juan's gun is recovered. Finn recreates the crime scene using different-colored paints to represent the victims. She concludes that Juan is the one who fired the gun, hitting both Wes and Vicky. However, Elena was beaten to death roughly 10 to 12 times with the murder weapon. Based on the void from the castoff and blood spatter, Finn believes that the knee impression found next to Elena is actually from somebody who came after the beating. It's possible Juan came to his sister's aid. Other blood spatter indicates that Juan was punched in the face at least six times, likely by Wes. Finn wonders how Wes would be able to do this if Juan is the one who had the gun. This leads her and Russell to conclude that Juan may have left with the gun, but Wes was the one who brought it.

Juan is brought in for questioning. A gun with his fingerprints on it was found in his work locker, and ballistics confirms that it was used to shoot Wes and Vicky. Cell phone records show that Elena called Juan that night, and Russell figures she did so because she was scared for Vicky. Wes had been calling Vicky all night long and had tried to ram his car through her apartment a few days before. This time, he came to the warehouse to take back the pendant he gifted Vicky. When she fought back, Wes pulled out a gun. Juan showed up to protect his sister, and the two of them fought, with Wes getting the upper hand. Wes then started to beat Elena to death when she tried to intervene. To try to stop this, Juan picked up the gun and fired, but accidentally ended up hitting Vicky, who was also trying to put an end to everything. Knowing how things would look because of his criminal past, Juan ran. He laments not being able to help his sister and wonders how the police figured out exactly what happened. Russell replies that he has a very smart friend.

In the hospital, Nick tells Wes that he hurt everybody that night and two people are dead because of him. Wes replies that he remembered something that morning—he loved Vicky and doesn't know why he would've done all of this.

Back at the lab, Russell and Finn pay each other compliments about their work on the case. Russell offers her a more permanent job on the team, something Finn says she'll think about.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

  • Jon Wellner as Henry Andrews
  • Alex Carter as Louis Vartann
  • Jesse McCartney as Wes Clyborn
  • Mary Page Keller as Leslie Clyborn
  • Philip Casnoff as Jonah Clyborn
  • Ramses Jimenez as Juan Perez
  • Nazanin Boniadi as Nurse Lauren
  • Michael Bryan French as Dr. Stewart
  • Sarah Dumont as Vicky Sheldon
  • Audi Resendez as Elena Perez (uncredited)

Major Events[]

  • This episode marks the first appearance of Elisabeth Shue as CSI Julie Finlay.

Music[]

  • She Wants to Be Adored by Winston Giles
  • Ne'er Do Wells by Audra Mae & The Almighty Sound

Notes[]

  • Paul Guilfoyle (Brass) is credited but does not appear in this episode.
  • At the end of the episode, Russell reveals that D.B. is actually short for Diebenkorn.

Trivia[]

  • Jesse McCartney, who played Wes Clyborn in the episode, is an award-winning singer in addition to being an actor. He co-starred with Elisabeth Harnois in the 2008 film Keith.
  • Seeing Red is also the name of a Season Seven episode of CSI Miami.

See Also[]

CSI:Las Vegas Season 12
73 SecondsTell-Tale HeartsBittersweetMaid ManCSI DownFreaks & GeeksBrain DoeCrime After CrimeZipperedGenetic DisorderMs. Willows RegretsWillows in the WindTressed to KillSeeing RedStealing HomeCSI UnpluggedTrends with BenefitsMalice in WonderlandSplit DecisionsAltered StakesDune and GloomHomecoming
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