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Witness To Murder
Witness
Season 2
Number 12
Writer Ildy Modrovich,
Laurence Walsh,
Michael Ostrowski
Director Duane Clark
Original Airdate January 14, 2004
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Previous Episode: Complications
Next Episode: Blood Moon


Witness to Murder is the twelfth episode in Season Two of CSI: Miami.

Synopsis[]

A diamond broker carrying two million dollars in merchandise is murdered after his car is hit by another vehicle and he gets out to confront the driver. The only witness to the crime is a developmentally challenged man who says the killer is someone named Colton. Meanwhile, outside of town, Speedle and Delko investigate the death of a teenage girl discovered at a rest stop with a broken neck. Shortly after the victim is taken from the scene, her body disappears during transport to Miami.

Plot[]

The episode opens with a man getting into his car in a parking garage and placing a small red bag carefully into his center console. He seems on edge for some reason, checking around himself several times before starting his car and driving through the garage. He hits another vehicle and pulls a gun from his center console before getting out of his vehicle to exchange words and information with the person he hit, another man. The conversation grows heated and a third man is shown watching the situation unfold when a gunshot is heard.

The episode cuts to the victim, the man with the small red bag, as Yelina and Horatio arrive on scene. The witness is shown washing windows in the parking garage as the two approach, and Horatio goes to question him. It's revealed that the witness suffers from mental deficiencies, and he introduces himself as Eugene Thomas Walter. Eugene claims to have seen everything, and identifies the shooter as "Colton" when asked. Horatio goes back to talk to Yelina briefly about the witness, whom Horatio says suffers from a condition that makes it hard for him to distinguish fantasy from reality.

The victim's name is revealed to be Richard Beckham. Horatio decides it would be best to focus on the evidence instead of the witness, as he realizes that Eugene would not be seen as competent as a witness and Horatio does not want to put him through testifying. Yelina leaves to find information on Beckham as Calleigh and Alexx arrive to go over the scene. Calleigh finds glass from the car that the victim hit on the pavement while Alexx finds a gun under the victim's car. The gun is fully loaded, which indicates that it might not be the murder weapon. Alexx tells Calleigh to start looking for the bullet, as the wound was a through-and-through, right before her beeper goes off and she is called to another scene.

Speedle and Delko arrive with Alexx to the second scene, the body of a young african american girl found at a rest stop. Her identification says her name is Jenny Kincaid. The body has double lividity, which means the body has been moved, and Alexx determines she has a broken neck. Due to an oncoming weather front, Alexx and Speedle decide to hold off on collecting trace evidence, and have the body hauler take Jenny's body to the morgue to be processed there. Alex heads back to the morgue.

Calleigh is shown sifting through the blood pool from the first homicide, finding only a bottlecap. She doesn't find the bullet, so she returns to the lab to check the gun for prints, stopping to tell Horatio as much. Eugene arrives, having been driven to the station by an uniformed officer after Horatio left him at the crime scene, and volunteers his help, which Horatio is hesitant to accept, as his credibility is questionable due to his condition. Regardless, Horatio takes Eugene to look at mugshots. Eugene tells Horatio that "Colton" isn't in the pictures. He becomes confused, and tells Horatio.

Horatio assures him he's doing just fine, and then asks Eugene what he remembers about the car that got hit. Eugene tells Horatio that it was a silver car that contained a lot of gym equipment, which he knows because he washed the silver car's windows. Horatio gets a phone call from Yelina, and tells her that he thinks that the driver of the silver car was a personal trainer and asks her to look into the appointments of the people who work in the building to see if anyone was meeting with their trainer that day. Yelina tells Horatio that their victim, Richard Beckham, was a diamond broker. Horatio asks her to get a client list and find out if he had a delivery that day.

Delko and Speedle go down to the morgue to check on the trace that Alexx had promised. She informs them that she just finished processing Horatio's victim and that Jenny Kincaid's body hasn't shown up yet. Speed tells her that it was dispatched over four hours ago, and Alexx imediately goes to check on the status of the body haulers. She says that it should have taken them an hour, tops, to arrive. Due to the remote location, a third-party hauler was used instead of morgue workers. The three of them quickly realize that they handed the body off to a stranger and have no idea where it is. 

Calleigh is in the lab, examining the glass she found at the parking garage. She manages to piece it together, and looks for a match in a reference binder until Horatio arrives. She tells him that she hit a dead end with the gun, as it was registered to the victim. Horatio suggests that the killer took the victim's gun and shot him with it, but Calleigh tells him that can't be proven because there are no fingerprints on the gun. She continues to try and find out the make and model of the silver car that was hit, and manages to find the model, which leads them to a personal trainer named Doug Sawyer.

Doug denies that he shot Richard and goes over his version of events, claiming that Richard hit him and then scared him off by waving the gun around, but was alive when Doug drove away. Yelina arrives and reveals that the diamond delivery that Richard was carrying that morning was destined for a woman named Brianna Crestini, whom Doug was with. It is revealed that Doug is Brianna's trainer, and that he may have learned about Beckham and the diamonds from her. Horatio asks Doug if he has ever gone by "Colton", and Doug tells him no. Eugene is asked to look at a lineup, and tells Horatio that none of the men, not even Doug, are Colton, and that Colton was very angry. Eugene expresses regret that Horatio is disappointed in him for not being able to help, which he can tell because Horatio is looking at him the way his father used to when he was disappointed. Horatio reassures him before helping Eugene fix his tie and finding him a ride home to the halfway house where he lives.

Calleigh goes over Doug's car, finding that the headlight bulb is broken. Through testing, she finds out that for the headlight bulb to be broken and oxidized the way it was, it would have had to be hot when it broke, suggesting that Doug intentionally backed into Richard. She shares her findings with Horatio, who determines that the accident was the work of a "bump and run" team, which tells them that there was a third party involved. They go back over the crime scene photos and Horatio says it's important to find the bullet. They find that a car parked near the shooting is gone in the crime scene photos, and think the bullet might be in the car that is missing. They find the bullet in the car after learning the owner claimed to be at the dentist on the day the crime was committed. Calleigh determines that the bullet was shot from a Smith & Wesson revolver, and they use a laser to figure out where the shooter was standing. Callie goes back to run the bullet and see if it matches anything in the IBIS database.

Alexx finds Delko, who tells her that unis had found the body hauler that left with Jenny Kincaid's body driving towards the border in the company van. He tells Alexx that someone paid the hauler for the body with new bills, which he is able to pull a print off of. The print leads them to a man named Thomas Kincaid, with the same address as Jenny, and Eric and Speedle head over to check it out. Thomas Kincaid is revealed to be Jenny's father, and claims that his daughter went to the mall and hasn't been seen since. Speed and Delko know that he's lying, and threaten to have an excavator start digging up Thomas Kincaid's property. Kincaid agrees to take them to his daughter's body, which is hidden in the wine cellar. Delko calls Alexx, who says she will come collect the body herself. Thomas explains that he and his daughter were talking at the top of the stairs when Jenny fell down. He claims it was an accident, to which Speedle replies that most people call 911 when there's an accident and has Thomas arrested.

Alexx finds out through examination that the cause of death was trauma to the brain from a fall, which also broke her neck. Speedle wonders aloud why Thomas hid the body, and Alexx tells him to go ask the father while she checks for subcutaneous bruising. Thomas sticks to the story he told earlier about it being an accident, and tells Speed and Eric that Jenny found out that he was having an affair and became angry with him, threatening to tell her mother. They argued, and he grabbed her arm. When she pulled her arm free, she fell down the stairs and broke her neck. Thomas says he needed time to figure out how to tell his wife about the affair. Thomas reveals that the affair was with his wife's sister. A courier drops off an envelope from Alexx, which Delko opens. The subcutaneous photos reveal bruising on Jenny's shoulders, which indicate that she was pushed. Thomas denies this, and asks for his lawyer.

Calleigh is still trying to get a hit on the bullet. Horatio suggests that the killer may use a fresh gun for wach crime, which explains why they were very professional, but the gun doesn't show up in IBIS. Calleigh checks for stolen guns that fit the murder weapon and finds one registered to a Chris Hildago, but before they can go and find Chris, Yelina shows up and tells Horatio that Eugene has been badly beaten and is in the hospital. The doctor tells Horatio that Eugene's blood will not clot, and Eugene is likely not going to make it. Horatio visits Eugene, who asks H if they caught the bad guy, and Horatio tells him that they haven't yet, but they will. Horatio tells Eugene to rest, that he's his partner, and that Horatio will cover for him. Horatio is pulled out of Eugene's room, but tells Eugene that he will be back in an hour and asks him to hold on for him.

Horatio goes to talk to Doug, and accuses him of siccing his partner on Eugene. Horatio uses Doug's cellphone to call the last person who called Doug, whom Horatio assumes is Colton. He tells Colton that he has made a mistake, and when Colton asks who Horatio is, Horatio tells him that he will soon find out.

Eric goes to check on Alexx, who tells him that she was inspired by her own children fighting to act on a hunch and check for debris between Jenny's teeth. She finds tissue, which leads them to a close female relative. They question the aunt that Thomas was having an affair, and find a bite wound on her forearm. The aunt tells them that she pushed Jenny down the stairs for threatening to tell her mother about the affair. They ask if Thomas was present. The aunt says that Thomas was at the crime scene, in another room, reading a book, and tells them that she lied to him and said his daughter fell. They arrest the aunt and Thomas, sending them both to jail. Alexx comforts Jenny's grieving mother, who says that she felt something was wrong, and that her daughter was very smart to figure it out, before she leaves.

Horatio finds Chris Hildago, a woman, who reported her gun stolen and says she carries it for self defense, as she works in a bad part of town. Horatio asks her who stole her gun, and she points the finger at a member of the cleaning crew where she works that repeatedly hit on her. She says that the man's name is Wayne, and he still works at their shared workplace. Horatio goes to find Wayne and questions him about the gun. Wayne tells Horatio that Chris lied, and that he's not allowed to have guns, as he is on work release from prison. Horatio asks him if he had the nickname "Colton" while in prison, and Wayne tells Horatio that Colton may not be a person, but rather a popular brand of sneakers. Horatio asks Wayne who he knows that wears Colton sneakers, and Wayne points out a coworker named Pete Tolson, who has a pair of Colton sneakers in his locker. Horatio searches Pete's locker and finds diamonds mixed in with chewing tobacco. Pete tells Horatio that he bought the diamonds off a fence, and Horatio tells Pete he thinks that he's guilty for Beckham's murder. Pete tells Horatio that he doesn't have anything, to which Horatio replies that he has a witness. Horatio confiscates Pete's clothes to process.

Horatio then goes back to the crime lab and receives a phone call from the hospital, telling him that Eugene has died from his injuries. He processes Pete's clothes for Eugene's blood, which he finds. He goes to Tolson, who has cut a deal in exchange for rolling on his partner in Beckham's murder. Horatio reveals his evidence, and charges Pete with the murder of Eugene as well. Pete tells Horatio that he did Eugene a favor by beating him to death, because of his handicap, and Horatio tells him that while Eugene may have had some obstacles to overcome, he still put Tolson in jail.

Horatio goes down to the hospital morgue and claims Eugene's body for a private burial, as Eugene was a ward of the state and had no family. He places his badge on Eugene's chest and tells him that his dad would have been proud of him, and that he is also proud of him.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

 Guest Cast[]

  • Sofia Milos as Yelina Salas
  • Louis Mustillo as Eugene Thomas Walter
  • Brad Beyer as Doug Sawyer
  • Rick Worthy as Thomas Kincaid
  • Jon Sklaroff as Pete Tolson
  • Lynn Griffith as Mrs. Kincaid
  • Alexia Robinson as Mrs. Kincaid's Sister
  • Delilah Cotto as Chris Hildago
  • Lesley Fera as Dr. Joyce Carmel
  • Stephen Quadros as Wayne Delroy
  • Dave Flynn as Bobby Hewitt
  • Natascha Hopkins as Jenny Kincaid

See Also[]

CSI:Miami Season 2
Blood BrothersDead ZoneHard TimeDeath GripThe Best DefenseHurricane AnthonyGrand PrixBig BrotherBaitExtremeComplicationsWitness to MurderBlood MoonSlow BurnStalkerazziInvasionMoney for NothingWannabeDeadlineThe OathNot LandingRap SheetMIA/NYC NonStopInnocent
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