Big Shots (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation)

"Big Shots" is the nineteenth episode of the seventh season of the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Plot

A limousine crashes into a party at a strip club, and Capt. Brass is called to the scene. The limo had two passengers: Champ Landley (played by Dheeaba Donghrer), who has been shot through the window and is dead, and Drops (played by Method Man), a party promoter on the club scene who is well known for ending his nights at the strip club. Drops is covered in blood.

Gil Grissom, Greg Sanders, and David Hodges (who is on mandatory field rotation) collect bullets from the scene. They find many different types of bullets and casings, including a .50 caliber shell casing that they hypothesize is linked to their investigation.

Greg processes the limousine. He recovers bullet fragments and skull fragments. He also finds a hundred dollar bill covered in white powder and an unusual pattern in the blood on the limo seat. Nick Stokes collects the broken pieces of glass and reassembles the window. They realize that six shots were fired through the window, and that Drops was sitting on Champ's right. However, the bevelling of the holes indicates that some of the shots were fired from inside the limo.

Brass confronts Drops about his registered .38 revolver. Drops says Champ shot back, and that afterwards, he burned the gun. Drops, who had bragged earlier that he has never spent a day in jail and doesn't even have a record, clearly has a history of eluding Brass' attempts to arrest him.

Greg examines Champ's and Drops' clothing but cannot find a match to the blood pattern in the limo. Also, Drops, Champ, and the driver of the limo test clean for drugs. However, the bill was covered in cocaine. Greg is reminded that most high-note bills have traces of cocaine on them, but Greg also finds mucus on the bill and asks Wendy Simms to run DNA. The DNA on the bill came from two sources: an unknown female and Aaron James, the brother of Demetrius James.

Grissom and Greg present circumstantial evidence placing Aaron at the scene, including Aaron's DNA and a grainy cell phone picture resembling Aaron, to the Undersheriff. However, he worries about the PR nightmare of arresting Aaron after the city has just paid his family a settlement. Greg is immediately pulled off the case.

Meanwhile, Sofia Curtis, Catherine Willows, and Warrick Brown arrive at a different crime scene — a Melissa Gentry lies dead in party clothes on a front lawn. She has multiple abrasions. They speculate that she was carjacked and jumped out of a moving car. Nearby, Warrick finds a piece of plastic with a serial number on it. Hodges identifies the plastic as a GMC seat belt adjuster. Unfortunately, this adjuster is used in over 100 GMC models.

At the autopsy, Doc Robbins concludes that Melissa died of head trauma. Her wrist is lacerated and her shoulder is dislocated. Catherine speculates that Melissa was dragged by the wrist with a seat belt. Catherine then notices that the victim's eyes are a different color than on her ID and realizes that she was using someone else's ID. As Warrick is questioning Melissa's mother, Catherine calls him to tell him about the mistaken identity. He gives Mrs. Gentry the good news, and then shows her a picture of the victim and asks if she recognizes her. She identifies the victim as Simone Molinez, Melissa's best friend.

Melissa comes in for questioning and tells Sofia that she gave Simone her ID. She also says that Simone loved to party and always started her nights at the Gold Square bar. Although it is a dive, she was well-known there and always came out with a few numbers. In Simone's purse, Catherine and Sofia find a Gold Square napkin with a Carey's phone number on it.

Sofia and Catherine find Carey Corville. They inspect his GMC truck, but his model does not have seat belt adjusters. She opens a tool box and smells disinfectant, and she notices that the passenger seat is damp. A test shows that the seat was covered in blood before being cleaned off. Carey claims that his friend Scott Brittington had a nosebleed. Sofia tracks Scott to a local hospital, where he was admitted the night before with a severe puncture wound to the shoulder. The doctors found bullet fragments in him; they speculated that someone dug the bullet out of him before he came to the hospital to avoid police notification. Scott dies at the hospital.

The .38 fragment found in Scott matches a .38 bullet found near the strip club. The CSIs realize that Carey and Scott in the GMC truck traded gunfire with Champ and Drops in the limousine. Simone's DNA is the unknown female DNA on the hundred dollar bill, and the seat belt adjuster came from the limo. They also find a bloody seat belt with damage that could not have been caused by the shooting and subsequent crash. The CSIs speculate that Simone blew off Carey and Scott at the bar to party with the rich guys, and they retaliated by chasing after them and shooting them down. At some point, Simone was dragged alongside the moving limo by a seat belt.

Sofia serves a livid Mrs. James (played by Lorraine Toussaint) with a search warrant. Sara finds a pair of jeans with an interesting pattern on the pocket — the same pattern found in the blood on the limo seat. She also finds the hoodie that Aaron was wearing in the picture; in its hood, she finds a skull fragment, and realizes that Aaron was sitting next to Champ.

When Brass questions him, Aaron says Drops had asked him to invest in one of his clubs. They went to the Gold Square bar to conduct their business and met Simone, who then rode off with them in the limo. Greg observes the interview and hears Aaron say he didn't "kick the girl out of the limo". Sara checks Simone's body and finds a bruise in the shape of a shoe heel. The shoe belongs to Champ; Champ kicked her out of the moving car when she would not have sex with Aaron. She was then dragged.

Drops shot Scott and gave the gun to Aaron. Aaron left the scene and Drops took his place in the car. Although Brass wants to arrest Drops for Scott's murder, Drops' lawyer calls his actions "textbook self-defense".

Mrs. James confronts Greg, saying he owes her for taking away both her sons. Greg faces her, saying that the decisions of her sons are not his responsibility. A subdued Mrs. James says that Aaron is all she has left. Greg requests that the district attorney go easy on Aaron. Aaron is given a suspended sentence.

Awards

Method Man submitted this episode for consideration in the category of "Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series" on his behalf for the 2007 Emmy Awards.^[1]

See also

• List of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episodes

References