CSI: Miami

Season 2 - Episode 15 - Stalkerazzi

Teleplay by Elizabeth Devine & Steven Maeda
Directed by Deran Sarafian

On the backroads of an exclusive Miami suburb, photographer Jerry Dorfman is fleeing from a dark tinted Cadillac Escalade. He takes off down an access road and a pothole causes him to crash into a cement wall.

Later, Jerry’s car is a crime scene. Local cop Sergeant Dennis Barron greets Horatio and tells him he was first on the scene. An anonymous 911 call led Barron to the site and he called in the CSIs when it appeared to be more than a simple accident. Alexx tells Horatio that it looks like he died from internal injuries, but once Dorfman is removed from the car she sees evidence that he was suffocated. Horatio picks up a smudge on Dorfman’s lip they are able to recover a partial palm print captured in blood.

Back at the lab, Alexx confirms that Dorfman was suffocated and finds black fibers caught in his nose hairs. She tells Horatio that he definitely survived the crash and wonders why someone would kill him and then phone 911. Horatio tells her they are probably dealing with two separate people. Meanwhile, Delko matches the palm print on Dorfman’s face to another photographer named Ralph Durst.

Delko goes to arrest Durst and finds him out front of a high class hotel waiting to get pictures of Brad Tustin, a major action movie star. Durst is a legitimate paparazzo, and he explains that Dorfman was a “stalkerazzi,” a photographer that follows celebrities around trying to photograph them in compromising positions. He claims that he spotted Dorfman being chased by a black Escalade and tried to follow them. He was held up by a slow moving truck and by the time he got to Dorfman, he was dead. He claims that he called 911 and then took some photos of Dorfman because death photos are valuable in Mexico. The palm print came when he moved Dorfman’s head to get a better angle. Horatio confiscates his cameras and film.

Speedle and Calleigh look over the developed photographs and they confirm Durst’s story. A quick comparison between Durst’s photos and the ones Speedle took show that some things were moved after the photographer left the scene. This leads to the discovery of a secret compartment in Dorfman’s passenger seat. Speedle and Calleigh check the car and find that the compartment was used for keeping rolls of film cool, and it seems the rolls are missing.

Meanwhile, Horatio is in the lab processing a splinter they pulled from Dorfman’s body. It is identified as coming from a Kapok tree and the insecticide on it indicates the area where the tree can be found. Delko and Speedle head out to the location of the crash and use the trees to find where Dorfman was taking pictures. Delko tries to climb the wall to see why Dorfman was so interested, but he is stopped by Sergeant Barron. He tells them that the celebrities that live in the area pay big money for their privacy and refuses to reveal whose house is behind the wall. Back in the CSI Hummer, they use their computer to find that the house belongs to Brad Tustin.

Horatio orders Tustin to come in for questioning but his entourage shows up instead, led by Jenny Moylan, Brad’s publicist. Horatio questions her about a call Dorfman placed to her cell phone just before his death. She claims he told her he had pictures of Brad that she wouldn’t want leaked, and Jenny agreed to buy them sight unseen. However, Dorfman never showed up at the meet. During this, Tustin walks into the interrogation room and offers full cooperation.

Calleigh is looking through the latest issue of the tabloids and discovers what might be one of Dorfman’s missing photos. It shows Tustin lounging by his pool with another man and promises more shocking photos to come. Calleigh and Speedle force the editor of the tabloid to turn over the original prints and they get an audio tape of the mysterious person who sold the photos as a bonus.

Horatio recognizes the voice on the tape as that of Sergeant Barron and finds him at his police station. Barron admits that he took the photos out of the car along with a black baseball cap with a movie logo on it. A disgusted Horatio recognizes the cap’s black fibers; it was the missing murder weapon.

Photos of a major movie star in a homosexual tryst may seem perfect motive for a murder, but it is the shocking event that occurs in the background of these photos that lead to an unexpected climax.