( hammering )
Boss! We-We got a problem. ( indistinct radio chatter )
( exhales deeply )
Well, clean surfaces make for good analysis. Yeah. Well, that may be the only good thing. I checked for a wallet, no ID. Nothing on him. The kid looks like a minor. Coroner's investigator says he's been dead for over 12 hours. Happened sometime this weekend.
You going to pry that piece of cloth from his hand? Not just yet. Help me out here. Got any ideas on this one?
Well, based on his pants around the knees, I would say a crime of passion.
Given the brutality of it... seems to me an act of rage. Captioning sponsored by CBS, C.S.I. PRODUCTIONS ♪ Who... are you? ♪ ♪ Who, who, who, who? ♪ ♪ Who... are you? ♪ ♪ Who, who, who, who? ♪ ♪ I really wanna know ♪ ♪ Who... are you? ♪ ♪ Oh-oh-oh ♪ ♪ Who... ♪ ♪ Come on, tell me who are you, you, you ♪ ♪ Oh, you! ♪
You know, I lose an hour a day cleaning up their beer bottles and their cigarette butts. Kids use it as a hangout, huh? Oh, sure. They think the house doesn't have a lock, it belongs to them. Well, it's a crime scene, so it belongs to us now. Yeah. How long? As long as it takes. You know, I got two teenagers at home, and they know how to respect other people's property. Now, who's going to feed them when I don't get paid for today, huh? Huh? I can't tell you that.
Take a look at his head, tell me what you see.
Definitely blunt force. That's a hammerhead. I thought you might say that.
Well, we know that people often commit crimes in places they're familiar with.
You got to be kidding me.
BROWN: the blood and see if it's all his.
Grissom?
Well, that should help.
I'll trade you a hammer for a screw. Name, please. I'll tell you mine, you tell me yours. Oh, come on, baby. I'm stuck with these ugly fools all day. A pretty girl comes by. Just having a little fun. Yeah, murder always makes me feel a little randy, too. Ooh.
( garbled radio transmission ) Fellows. Hey, uh, Mrs. Marlene Mitchell, 32. Apparent gunshot wound to the chest. Entry, no exit. No other apparent injuries.
Do we know who shot her? I patted down all her friends. Nobody's carrying. Got a couple officers scanning the neighborhood in case the, uh, weapon got tossed. She was breaking up a fight when she went down. Nobody saw anything? Nobody heard anything? No. Somebody's lying.
That the husband? The current one. The other one-- he's the ex.
Interesting family reunion. Whose brilliant idea was that? The Mitchells were moving in. The ex stopped by to say hi. Don't you hate it when hello leads to gunfire?
I'll need to GSR both.
Sir? I'm going to need to test your hands for GSR. What's that? Gunshot residue. Why? To rule you out. You think I shot my wife the day after our honeymoon.
We were just moving our stuff. Her ex, Todd, shows up. He knows he's not supposed to come within 100 yards of her.
But he did.
Please? Marlene? Call 911.
I thought it was a heart attack.
Then I saw the blood. Yes, but there was a restraining order against you. Why were you here?
Thank you.
WOMAN: Distinguish! You ready to run? She does all my running. Thanks. Trail! Thanks. Trail!
It's a hell of a place to get lost. Yeah. We have five million olfactory sensory receptors. Penny's got 220 million. She sees the world differently.
The suspect stopped here.
Trail is still strong here.
( barking ) She's got a hit on the Dumpster.
( barking )
She's getting nothing, but Penny will pick up on anything they touched.
( barking ) There's something in the silver bag.
What do you think? Bought new clothes, ditched the old ones? What's missing from that sweater's what that dead kid had in his hand. So, we're looking for a girl who bought a new outfit... some earrings and a latte. Oh, an iced cappuccino, actually.
Congealed blood in the pericardium. Heart's what took the bullet. Explains why she just dropped. Yeah, she was dead in seconds.
Hmm. Bullet's still in the heart.
Here we go.
There.
Well, it looks like a nine millimeter. I'll let Vega know. Fairly intact. Want to do the honors? Sure.
That's it.
Four inches? That's shallow. Standard handgun bullet penetration's 12. Right. Give me a hand, will you? Sure.
85 degree downward angle? Well, that's, uh, fairly standard. Most gunshot wounds are 90 degrees, give or take. Oh. Thanks, Doc. Right.
JOHNSON: They say in America, you're on camera an average of seven times a day. Go to a mall, and you can at least triple that. I guess that's good for us. I'm going to think twice the next time I try on a shirt. Well, legally, they can't put cameras in dressing rooms, but there's legal, and then there's what people do. Our girl bought her clothes at 8:31. Let's scan the dressing room footage from 8:00 on.
Hold it. That's our sweater. And that's our girl. She did a walk out. A "walk out?" Yeah, my girlfriend does it all the time. She finds something she likes, rips the tags off in the dressing room, hands them to the clerk, and walks out wearing the new stuff. You go shopping with your girlfriend? That's nice. Well, you can get her prints from the receipts. DNA from the sweater. And you've got a face. You're close. Well, look at her. She's a minor. She paid in cash. She's not going to be in any database. Without a name, we don't have much. Okay, one of our hammers had blood on it. It matches the victim's. Did Greg analyze the clothes from the Dumpster yet? Yeah. Blood's a match, too. Okay. So, the question is, what is the connection between this girl and a construction worker? BRASS: Mr. Curtwell, where were you this weekend? I was fishing in Tahoe. Catch anything? No. Nothing was biting. Anyone go with you? No. How long were you gone? Friday to Sunday. Look, I thought I was just here to pick up my hammer. Do you ever leave your tools at the job site? No way. That hammer-- it's perfectly balanced. BRASS: Then how do you explain the blood on it? And your injuries.
Well, it's a construction site. People get hurt. BROWN: The blood that we found on your hammer... matches this kid right here.
( sighs ) Is that the dead kid from the house? Yeah. I never got a look at him. I-I I didn't go inside.
What about her?
That's my kid sister, Ashley.
Why? What's she got to do with it?
You tell us.
My parents died in a car accident four years ago. SIDLE: I'm very sorry. Your brother Gregory is your guardian, right? Yeah. And he left you alone all weekend? He goes away a lot. Okay. Why don't you tell me what happened last night? I was on my way to the mall to get something to eat. I always cut through the construction site. My brother tells me not to, but it saves me, like, ten minutes. That makes sense.
What happened after that? Well, this guy from school, Brian, comes out of nowhere. Do you know Brian's last name? Yeah. It's, um... Haddick. We were in homeroom together freshman year. So, anyway, he says his cat ran away... and will I help him find it. And you did? ( sobbing softly and sniffling) A cat. I'm so stupid. You're not stupid, Ashley.
I know this is hard. If we could just go over it from start to finish just one time.
So, we walked into the house... ( starting to sob )
I think I saw him come in here. What color is he? BRIAN: Gray. Here, kitty, kitty.
You're going to like it, you dirty bitch. You're going to like it.
( sobbing ) It was like the more I shouted, the more he liked it.
Rape is not about sex. It's about violence.
You were against the wall. ( crying ): No!
Did you see who hit Brian?
Ashley, after all that had happened, you went shopping? He was all over me. I just had to get him off me. ( sobbing ) And you got some coffee and some earrings.
What?
I bought that stuff?
All I remember is getting new clothes and going home. Why does all this bad stuff keep happening to my family? She's covering for her brother. He's got a non- confirmable alibi. I'm sure she doesn't want to lose the only guardian she's got.
It's pretty obvious the initial blows were to the head. Well, according to Sara, that's consistent with the girl's story. Whoever attacked him just kept going. Used some real force. Severed his spinal cord at Cl, C2. Well, that would have rendered him immobile. Right, so why keep hitting? The epidermis was disturbed, leaving areas of exposed derma, which we'd normally see as red or purple abrasions. But in this case, no blood rushed to the area. He was beaten postmortem. Right. So, Gregory Curtwell sees Brian attacking his sister. His adrenaline starts going, and he can't stop. Well, Brian may have gotten off a punch of his own. I can't identify the pattern, but I sent blood and skin transfer to Greg. And you're going to need these. Thanks.
That's our son. Who could have done this to my baby?
Do you recognize this girl?
Did Brian ever mention the name Ashley Curtwell? He got a little out of hand for a while. We couldn't keep track of his friends. "Out of hand"? I found some marijuana in his room. Broke curfew. The nipple piercing was the last straw. I told him he could do anything he wanted to the body God gave him once he moved out. Until then... He was grounded. But he was doing so much better. His grades were up. He got a job. Where did he work? MR. HADDICK: My brother owns a restaurant. Got him a job bussing and waiting tables. 500 bucks every two weeks. Cash under the table. Pretty good for a kid who can't drive. ( sobbing ) DAWSON: No GSR on either the husband's or ex-husband's hands. STOKES: That's not definitive. One of them still could have fired the gun and washed his hands. Yeah. Well, you know, you asked me to check Marlene Mitchell's bullet for trace? Well, there isn't any. It's in pristine condition. The only reason for shallow penetration is loss of momentum. Yeah, and it was a standard full metal jacket, not a pre-fragmented. So, assuming that the bullet didn't come in contact with any intervening object, what slowed it down? Hey, Sanders, you got anything on that knuckle sludge? Grissom's asking. Yeah, a skin sample taken from Brian Haddick's defensive wounds, hair samples from Ashley Curtwell, and buccal swab collected from Gregory Curtwell. No match to the brother or sister. Construction worker didn't do it. Or he didn't do it alone.
72-degree impact angle puts Brian here for the initial blows.
Width is three millimeters. Length is six.
Arcsine gives us 30 degrees. So, Brian was crawling.
That must be where his neck was exposed.
He ended up here on the floor with his spinal cord severed. Well, if he was laying down, this looks too high to be a spatter. Must be cast-off. SIDLE: On three walls. Assailants tend to move only in reaction to a target, Brian was stationary. Why would the attacker keep moving? It doesn't make sense. It does if there were three hammers and three attackers.
Hey, Catherine, feel like doin' some real work? And leave all this? I got a woman who DFO'd in front of her house trying to break up a fight. It's a single gunshot wound to the chest. The penetration is... shallow. I want to know why. And you want me to cook?
( whirring )
( snaps )
Okay, boys. There's always room for Jell-O. Oh, yeah. Uh, Catherine, Oh, yeah. Uh, Catherine, technically, that's just gel. I wasn't planning on eating it.
Okay, let's shoot it.
Betty Crocker.
Firing one at 100%!
Standard velocity is 1,100 feet per second.
All right, that is a... 12-inch penetration.
So... a, um... 100% load gives us 12 inches. Firing one at 70%!
Seven and three-quarter inches. Firing one at 40%!
STOKES: 500 and... 50 feet per second. Four inches. Same as Ms. Mitchell. So Mrs. Mitchell was shot by a bullet traveling 550 feet per second. Now that we know the speed, we can calculate the distance. Thanks, Catherine.
So standard velocity for a nine millimeter bullet is 1,100 feet per second. How far does a nine millimeter bullet have to travel before it slows down to 550 feet per second? Let's see.
1,800 feet. Whoa. We're talking six football fields. Yeah, that would pretty much eliminate anyone that was in the Mitchells' front yard. Can a nine millimeter bullet even travel that far? Hang on.
All right.
If a nine millimeter were fired straight... it'd go about 600 feet before gravity brought it down, but if a bullet were fired at an angle... could go a heck of a lot further. That would account for the distance, but Ms. Mitchell was shot at an 85-degree angle. That's basically perpendicular. Um... bullets are predictable.
People... aren't.
No, stop it!
I assumed she was standing.
Okay, this is the Mitchells' house, and by all eyewitness accounts, she was standing in front the house, facing away north, when she was shot, so this line represents the 1,800 feet our bullet traveled. It had to have come from somewhere... ...on that arc.
Good luck knocking on doors.
Here I'm looking for three guys, but you only found one hammer with blood on it, so who do you want me to follow? Me.
What's up? The shoe tread I found at the scene-- it's a World Industries Diablo. It's a skate shoe. Size 11. On a construction worker? Screams teenager, I know. Why is Gregory Curtwell hanging out with teenage boys? Well, he has a teenage sister. And the sister and Brian Haddick were both students at McKinley High. I bet the shoe also goes to school there.
Nice kicks. I like those. You guys play ball? BOY: Yeah. Yeah? BOY: Uh-huh. Yeah? BOY: Uh-huh. Nice backpack. BOY: Thanks. We're treading a razor-thin line of illegal search and seizure here. Now, I'm not arguing with you, but shoes are a plain-view item. Anyway, here's the guy who's going to be investigating... Tyler, come on, we're going. Are you crazy? Do you know what my law firm does? You can't question these kids without a parent present. We're not questioning them, which is why you're here-- so we can. Oh. And I'm holding you responsible. Clark County Law Enforcement and I have taken every precaution to make sure that these students' rights were not violated. You are sequestering these kids without probable cause. I hate that I've been called out of work to come down here, and I'm going to be so far up your ass, you're not going to be able to sit down straight. You know what I hate? People who hurt kids.
And you know who those people sometimes are? Cops? Other kids. If it had been your son whose skull was smashed in with a hammer, you'd be asking me where I was when I should've been protecting him. Kids bring guns to school to shoot other kids, so who are you protecting? Let's discuss it in court.
Well, way to clear a room. Those of you with parents here are dismissed, and the rest of you please wait here.
Brass.
Check this out.
Hey, bud.
What's your name? Benny. Benny, where's your father? Is he around? Uh, he's at home. Probably called in drunk. Well, lucky for you, we make house calls.
BENNY: Dad?
You good for nothing little bastard... I knew you stole that game thing. 125 bucks, my ass. I told you. I bought that with my own money. You talkin' back to me? Huh? Hey... BRASS: Let's sit down. Hey... BRASS: Let's sit down. Let's all sit down. Come on.
Look, I'll take this. Let 'em argue diminished capacity after the fact. You think they know how a DNA test works? I don't know. Let's find out. Mr. Lizzio, do you mind if we test Benny's sneaker for DNA? You do what you got to do, officers.
Lift your right shoe, please.
We got a problem. The blood on your shoe is a match to Brian Haddick's.
DNA doesn't lie. So, do you want to tell us how a dead kid's blood ended up on the bottom of your sneaker, Benny? Yeah, Benny. Why don't you tell us that?
Sometimes I go to the construction site just to hang out.
So, you just, uh... happened upon it? Didn't report it to anybody? I was trespassing. I didn't want to get in trouble. Mr. Lizzio, would you mind if I took a look around? Be my guest.
Mr. Lizzio, why don't you sit down? We're going to be a while, okay? You been drinking today, Mr. Lizzio? Couple of beers.
Practice makes perfect.
So, Benny, for the record, you've waived your right to have your parent or an advocate present. Yep. So, how do you know Brian? We hung out a few times when we were freshmen. You know Gregory Curtwell? Ashley's brother? Yeah. He bought me beer a couple times. Oh, so you know Ashley, too? Yeah. I'm a friendly guy. Well, that's good, Benny, because... ( clears throat ) ...you're looking at murder. And if you're friendly and you cooperate, and you tell me what happened to Brian Haddick, maybe I can cut you a deal. Ain't gonna happen. I'm no snitch. You want to tell me about those melons at your house? You looking to be another Gallagher? You know who that is? Since when is whacking fruit a crime? When it's practice for whacking people. Your hammer had Brian's blood all over it. Understand something, Benny, I'm talking about months versus years of juvenile detention. It's your call.
They got cable? Food? My dad locked on the outside?
Sounds good to me. Besides, I'm a minor. By the time I'm 21, it's like it never happened.
Did he roll? Brass says the kid is looking forward to going to jail. Hmm. So, what do we got here? It's hard to tell what's relevant and what's trash here. This is everything we brought back from Benny's party room.
Are these...? SpaghettiOs? I don't think so. SANDERS: Nah. Nah, those would be orthodontic rubber bands. Hook 'em to your braces, uh, upper to lower. Helps pull the jaw in the right direction. Also great for flinging. Yeah, I had it all-- palate expander, braces, retainer, head gear. Ah, five years of misery, but worth every penny, don't you think?
Um, there might be some saliva residue on them. I can see what I can pull off, if you want. SIDLE: Yeah. Would you? SANDERS: Well, you're going to need something. Strike three on the knuckles. Benny's DNA doesn't match. Gregory's doesn't match. Ashley's doesn't match. Who did this guy hit? Greg, test both of these. If a third guy has braces, it may explain the strange pattern on Brian's hand. It's probably another student, but Benny's not talking. BROWN: Benny has a party room, right? You can't have a party without the music. I found some new CDs in his room.
What's "C & D"? It's like a music club, 12 CDs for the price of one.
And Aaron Gilbert was...?
The deejay maybe? SIDLE: You know, at this time of year, watermelon isn't cheap, particularly organic. Maybe the music isn't the only thing that Aaron Gilbert brought to the party.
WOMAN: Yeah, I heard gunfire a couple of days ago. Johnnie, the idiot behind us, was playing like G.I. Joe in his backyard. I screamed out my window. I got kids, you know? Why do you want to know? Just curious. She called you guys, right? It's like having a wife. Gun's brand-new. Shot it one time. She told me to stop, I stopped. Sir, you're going to have to tell us where that gun is.
And this is the gun that you fired? Yeah.
Empty ten-round magazine. It was full when you started? Yeah. ( gun clip clacking )
I, uh, only count nine holes in your target. I must have missed one. Oh, you didn't miss.
Hey! You want to kill someone?! ( gunshot ) Hey! You want to kill someone?! ( gunshot ) Put that thing away! I have kids! ( yells ) VEGA: Just nice and easy. You see, your neighbor didn't lose her kid, but six blocks away, a guy lost his wife. It was just a little target practice. And that's why it's illegal to discharge firearms within the city limits, genius.
Aaron Gilbert? Yeah. I'm Detective Brass, Las Vegas Police. We need to talk. Oh, dude, I got to get home. My mom's waiting for me and my brother. Oh, we talked to your mom. Yeah, she gave us your hammer and this.
BOY: Yo, dawg, we going or what?
Or what... dawg.
That's a nice Walkman you had. What'd that cost? 125 bucks? Same as Benny's Gameboy. Same as your brother's secret stash.
Speaking of Benny, he's not too smart, is he? He wouldn't give up you and your brother for a lesser sentence. You know what? There's an opportunity here, and I think you got more on the ball than Benny. Tell me what happened.
Jared... ain't braces a bitch? I see that cut on your lip. Is that where Brian hit you?
They do make for a good impression though. See all these grooves here? It's perfect for storing DNA. That would be your DNA.
Look, Jared, I'm not a cop, but if you tell me what happened, I will put in a good word for you.
SIDLE: We have a problem. We have three hammers and four suspects. BROWN: Well, the Gilbert brothers both seem ready to go down for it. BRASS: And Benny can't wait to go to jail. If they were defending Ashley against an attacker, why not say so? GRISSOM: They weren't. The smashed watermelon suggests the whole thing was premeditated. Making the motive robbery? BROWN: Well, Benny, Aaron and Jared each had about $125 worth of cash and assorted prizes. GRISSOM: $375. Brian's parents said that he was being paid $500 every two weeks. Cash under the table. It was payday, so who got the other $125? Well, Gregory Curtwell makes good money. 125 bucks is a spit in the ocean for a construction worker. If he wasn't defending his sister, then he has no motive. BRASS: Well, if he didn't do it, how did his hammer end up with Brian's blood on it? Clothing-- $85; earrings - $30; coffee-- four dollars. Getting away with murder... Priceless. SIDLE: That hand that holds the wallet is the hand that rules the world. Huh, Ashley?
Your fingerprint in Brian's blood on Jared's money. This is what we call "completing the triangle." Okay. So he attacked me, and I did see who defended me. But I didn't want to get my friends in trouble, and the money was for, like... like, pain and suffering. You weren't attacked, Ashley. Brian was. We figured none of the boys wore cotton candy, so we had it tested. Turns out you were at Benny's house, too.
Let's do it! ( hard rock music playing ) ASHLEY: Come on, guys! Whoo! ( grunting and shouting ) At the mall, you weren't in shock, you were celebrating.
Your brother was up in Tahoe this past weekend, wasn't he? He goes away almost every weekend. You know, I'm done with the Ashley pity party. My guess is Aaron and Jared only had one hammer, but you had access to your brother's tools. Why Brian?
Before he went straight, we were buds, but then he got too good for us, but he wasn't too good to want to get with this. Where do you want to do it at? Right here. In here? Yeah.
( Ashley laughs )
You set me up?
ASHLEY: They have to do it! ( Ashley shouts )
You're not a victim, you were a lure. Do you know how many people don't report a rape because they're afraid that no one will believe them? Of course. It's what I was counting on. I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that you're tried as an adult. Good luck.
I dress up real nice-- couple barrettes, little lace collar, two dead parents. I'll be the saddest little girl in the world. Captioning sponsored by CBS, C.S.I. PRODUCTIONS Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org ?