CSI: Miami

Season 4 - Episode 7 - Felony Flight

Written by Ann Donahue & Elizabeth Devine & Anthony E. Zuiker
Directed by Scott Lautanen

Four college kids cruising around in a convertible look towards the sky to see a plane headed straight for them.  On the plane is Henry Darius, a convicted serial killer who is being extradited from New York to Miami.  The students rush over to the crash site to assist.  The crew members are dead; Darius and another inmate, Ken Hastings, stumble out of the plane.  Darius begins his next killing spree by murdering each of the students.  He is on the loose, he’s armed and he’s out for more blood.

 Calleigh and Delko find crossed wires in the plane’s wreckage, and determine Darius sabotaged the flight.  Horatio meets with James Johnson, the owner of Florida’s largest media conglomerate and the husband of Lydia Johnson, one of Darius’ murder victims.  Johnson is agitated that Darius is on the loose.  Calleigh and Wolfe pursue a cryptic lead from Darius’s confession in the hope of finding Lydia’s body.  At a local cemetery, they find a shovel with blood on it at the gravesite but, no Lydia.  Horatio and Tripp track down Joann Nivens, Darius’ very wealthy “prison pen pal.”  They find her at a small private airport waiting for Darius with a wad of cash – ready to assist in his flight from justice. Horatio and Tripp get a tip from Hastings that Darius was headed to a sorority house on a nearby college campus.

 They arrive too late and discover the scene of a mass murder at the sorority house.  Calleigh and Alexx find Kimberly Beaudreux, one coed who managed to hide during Darius’ killing spree.   Wolfe finds out the blood on the shovel is indeed Lydia’s, but the prints are not Darius’.  Horatio talks with Lydia’s son Adam, and discovers a homemade CD in the car.  Brian Miller is a punk rocker wannabe whose CD is in the Johnson’s car.  Johnson is questioned and reveals he jumped into Johnson’s car the morning of the murder and popped his CD into the player, forcing Johnson to listen.  Johnson humiliated Miller by telling him he couldn’t sing.  Horatio confirms this story with Johnson, and finds it odd that a husband would “forget” such an incident took place on the day his wife was murdered.  Calleigh gets a lead from Kimberly that Darius was looking for Alexa Endecott, a student living in the sorority house.  Detective Mac Taylor from New York has been working on the Darius case and joins up with Horatio.  They converge on the riding club where Alexa was that morning but it’s too late; Darius has stolen the guard’s car and has taken Alexa hostage.  Taylor and Horatio find the abandoned car with a note from Darius leading them to Lydia Johnson’s body.  The body is accompanied by her husband’s folded business card.   Horatio questions Johnson about the card and the five million dollar insurance policy he took out on his wife before her death.  Miller’s prints are on the card.  Miller admits he hired someone named Rosie to scare Johnson after the mogul humiliated him.  Instead, Rosie got scared and accidentally killed Lydia.  Horatio looks at Lydia’s gunshot and determines she was shot in the head execution style -- not by accident.  Horatio listens to a phone message from Alexa, and recognizes the sound of the Staten Island Ferry in the background.  Darius and Alexa are apparently already in New York.  Horatio questions Joann Nivens about letting Darius use her private jet.  The chase continues …