CSI: Miami

Season 4 - Episode 4 - 48 Hours to Life

Teleplay by Marc Dube & John Haynes
Directed by Norberto Barba

Following a lengthy pursuit, the police finally capture Toby Hollins, a desperate young man whose clothes are drenched in blood.  Horatio enters the crime scene, a beautiful 40-foot Sea Ray boat docked at the marina.  Lying dead on the deck in her bikini and a sarong is 40- year old Patricia Boland.  Hollins detailed boats, and Patricia was one of his clients.  Certain this is an open-and-shut case, Tripp pressures Hollins for a confession, and gets it.  Horatio senses the young man is innocent and has 48 hours to prove it.

 Delko collects evidence and gloves two glasses one with lipstick.  Hollins is on his way to jail, and he’s scared.  He locks eyes with inmate Darrell Grimwood, a hardened criminal who says the boy has to pay for looking at him. With no money in his pocket, Hollins tenders his shoes as payment.  Grimwood then breaks Hollins’ wrist. 

 Horatio questions Michael Boland, Patricia’s ex- husband, who says he’s been having an affair with another man.  Hollins admits to Horatio that he and Patricia were having an affair, but he didn’t kill her.  The only reason he confessed, he says, was Tripp’s pressure.   Alexx determines that although Patricia was shot smothering is what killed her.  Patricia’s cell phone reveals her last call was to Gina Rankin, a potential buyer for the boat.  Delko questions Gina, who tells Delko she and her boyfriend, Steve Gabler, went for a test ride on the boat with Patricia.  Gina says Gabler went to use the bathroom and when Patricia came to look for him he accidentally shot her.  They returned to shore, tied up the boat, and left.  Delko and Calleigh question Gabler, who blames everything on Gina.  Delko gets his prints.

 A riot breaks out at the prison.  There is mass confusion.  When one of the automatic doors won’t close, a guard investigates and finds Grinwood lying in a pool of his own blood with Hollins standing next to him, holding a bloody shank.  When Gablers prints are found on a shell casing, he confesses to Delko he shot Patricia.  

 Calleigh finds teeth marks on Grinwood’s pillow. Valera finds a handkerchief in Hollins’ pocket with the initials M.E.B. on it.  Horatio questions Boland, and notices he has a blood drop on his bracelet.  Bolton confesses to the murder, motivated by what he felt was Patricia’s greed in the divorce settlement.

 Calleigh reenacts the scuffle between Grinwood and Hollins.  Grinwood had raped Hollins, who acted out of self defense yet was too embarrassed to admit to the rape.  He made the shank out of a turkey bone and some dental floss because he knew if he didn’t get tough, prison rape would be a daily occurrence.  Horatio knows Hollins will now be exonerated, but he also knows it’s going to be a very long road for Hollins to recover from his 48 hours in prison.