CSI: Miami

Season 2 - Episode 24 - Innocent

Story by John Haynes
Teleplay by Steven Maeda & Sunil Nayar
Directed by Joe Chappelle

As dawn arises on South Pointe Park in Miami, attractive college couple Kyle Preston and Gina LaSalle are making out on a blanket. While Kyle is fumbling with the buttons on Gina’s blouse, they both hear a cell phone ringing. Gina gets up to investigate and discovers the body of Ashley Anders in the nearby bushes.

Later, Horatio joins Yelina at the scene. Yelina is interviewing Kyle and Gina about the discovery and they swear they only touched her cell phone. Horatio asks if they have an ID on the body, but Yelina tells him that Alexx hasn’t arrived to go through the effects yet. Horatio notices that ten uniformed policemen are standing around the body and guesses that they must recognize her. One of the uniforms tells Horatio that her name was Ashley Anders and that she was a porn star.

Alexx and Delko are collecting evidence from the body. Delko discovers a sticky substance in her hair that does not seem biological. Alexx rules out robbery as a motive because Ashley was brutally strangled to death, judging by the distinct bruises on her neck. Alexx also doubts that this was a sex crime, since Ashley is fully dressed and there are no signs of bunching, a common occurrence when a dead body is redressed.

Back at CSI, Yelina tells Horatio that Ashley was employed by Palmgrove Industry, the corporation owned by Donald Trump-like David Jeffers. She also tells Horatio that she will be going away for the weekend with Internal Affairs detective Rick Stetler.

In the Autopsy Theater, Alexx tells Horatio that there was no sign of rape, and that Ashley’s last meal included very expensive caviar. Alexx also found scrapings under Ashley’s nails and sends them to be processed.

Calleigh follows up on the fingernail sample and discovers that the skin belonged to David Jeffers. She finds that David Jeffers had a statutory rape charge when he was in grad school and that the crime took place in a park. Calleigh and Yelina go to interview Jeffers and are stopped by his high-priced lawyer Marc Snowden. Snowden tries to send them away but Jeffers shows up and agrees to cooperate. Yelina executes a warrant and they begin a search of Jeffers office. Calleigh finds an answering machine tape of Jeffers


and Snowden arguing about taking care of “the Ashley problem.” Snowden tries to stop them from taking the tape, claiming privilege, but Calleigh points out a judge may not see it that way in a murder case.

Later back at CSI, Delko discovers a chemical spill that eats through the answering machine tape as it is being dubbed. As Delko is explaining what happened to Horatio, Stettler comes up and announces that he is looking into the situation. Horatio asks Delko to give him a minute alone with Stettler. Stettler tells Horatio that he has opened a file on him and that he knows that Madison is Horatio’s brother’s child. Horatio warns Stettler against telling Yelina and Stettler tells him that threat is going in his file.

Speedle and Calleigh search Ashley’s apartment. They find a dog bowl but no dog, and a stack of fan letters. Calleigh processes the fan letters while Speedle goes through some of Ashley’s films. The CSI A/V tech suggests that Speedle take a look at the DVD bonus features and he discovers that there is enough personal information given for anyone to track Ashley down.

Horatio finds an unidentified print on the tape machine and tracks it back to an employee named Carl Mercer. Horatio is upset to find that budget cuts have forced the CSI lab to use prison labor for custodial searches. Stettler and Horatio interview Carl and he admits to being paid to spill the chemical, but he had no idea it would destroy evidence.

Back at the lab, Calleigh discovers one fan that seemed particularly fixated with Ashley, and a DNA match from Ned Ostroff’s saliva on his fan letters to semen found in Ashley’s bed. Ned admits to being obsessed with Ashley but claims that he would never kill her. He explains that he would break into Ashley’s apartment and masturbate in her bed when she wasn’t around. Ned is taken into custody for the breaking and entering, but new evidence suggests that he is not the killer.

At closer look, the bruise marks on Ashley’s neck indicate she was strangled by a man with only nine fingers. None of their suspects match that description, but someone involved in the case is discovered to have a dark connection to pornography…and a sprained finger.