CSI: NY s09e09 Episode Script

Excuse me.
Hey, come on, man, just watch where you're standing, please.
Hey, sit over here.
Hey, chill out, all right? You stepped on my foot again.
Please don't do that, all right? Look, I'm sorry.
Would you just relax? What the hell is your problem, man? You stepped on my foot, like, three times.
Just get out of my face.
I don't want any trouble.
Hey, if you do it again, jackass, you're a dead man.
Yeah, whatever.
I warned you, man.
Dude, it's the bus.
It's not my fault.
NYPD.
Drop the knife! Go to hell! Hey! Move! Keep pressure on it.
You'll be okay.
Call an ambulance.
Get up.
Now that's just wrong.
What do we know? Not much.
Warehouse has been shut down since July.
Security patrol spotted a busted gate a couple hours ago and called it in.
Some poor uni had the unique experience of finding this horror show.
They made no attempt to conceal the body.
Whoever did this knew it would be found.
Well, they either didn't care, or they were sending a rather emphatic message.
Check out the prison ink.
Our boy has gang ties.
"41-6-12" stands for D.
P.
L.
Dios, Patria, Libertad.
God, Fatherland, Liberty.
The Dominican National Motto.
Nobody loves a good dismemberment like the Latin street crews.
If this is gang-related, it may be more than murder.
It could be a declaration of war.
Hello? Hello? Who was it? I don't know; we got cut off.
? Out here in the fields ? I fight for my meals ? I get my back into my living ? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
? Bite chunks out of me You're a shark and I'm swimming My heart still thumps as I bleed And all your friends come sniffing Triangles are my favorite shape Three points where two lines meet Toe to toe, back to back, let's go ? My love, it's very late ? Till morning comes ? Let's tessellate.
Lovato! Interrogation room, now.
I recognized your number on the vic's caller I.
D.
I know it was you on the other end of that line.
The phone log shows you called the vic all within a few hours of the poor bastard being cut in half.
Look, I didn't do anything wrong.
Convince me.
Who's the body in that warehouse, and what's your connection to him? What the hell's going on, Lovato? Vic's name is Benny Madera.
He was a part of a drug case I worked.
Why did you call him today? There was a new development.
You should have called your supervisor.
I did.
I told my DEA liaison everything.
You don't believe me? Robert Hicks.
Go check for yourself.
I had a responsibility to tell Benny his life was in danger.
And how did you know that? One of his associates made me as a cop this morning.
I warned you, man! Dude, it's the bus.
It's not my fault.
- NYPD! Drop the knife! - Go to hell, man.
I think I'm the reason why Benny's dead.
Benny was known as Toro on the streets.
Benny the Bull.
He's got priors for possession, distribution, assault, all kinds of weapons charges.
This guy's been in and out of jail since he was 15 years old.
He was one of the subjects on an undercover narco case I was on before I got transferred into homicide.
What was the assignment? Infiltrating a crew of local Trinitario gang members, gathering intel for a joint NYPD/DEA task force.
Benny was an up-and-comer.
He was well-respected and trusted by the other players.
He also had a good eye for fresh talent.
He was your way into the gang? It took me months to get under his radar, but as soon as I did, he took me under his wing.
After that, everybody knew me as Anita Castillo, a member of Toro's crew.
How long were you under? A long time to live your life as someone else.
Must have seemed like an eternity.
I was building a strong case, learning routines, making connections.
Investigation was right on track, and then just like that, it was over.
Your cover was blown? I had no other choice but to walk away.
As far as the Trinitarios were concerned, Anita Castillo just disappeared.
And it would have stayed like that if I hadn't taken the bus this morning.
Didn't even recognize her at first, but the look in her eyes said she knew exactly who I was.
And then I remembered where I saw her.
Toro sent me.
Bye, Mama.
She looks good, huh? Toro sent me with this.
Blood at the scene was a bust.
It all came from a single donor, the vic.
- Any prints? - A handful, but no hits in AFIS.
I think they were just left by old warehouse employees.
Well, the Trinitarios do know how to clean up after themselves.
You're thinking someone in his own crew murdered him? He rolled out the red carpet for a narc.
In gang culture, that's a sin that can't go unpunished.
What about the girl on the bus could she have done this? Maybe, but not without the approval of a bigger player.
So, the question is, who did she report to after seeing you? Let's pick her up and find out.
We can't.
I don't know her name.
But you do know where she was sitting on the bus.
All right, I'll call the MTA.
You don't have to.
The stabbing made the bus a crime scene.
It's already parked in the impound lot.
? Sid, take a look at this.
Well, whatever it is, that's certainly a unique shade of green.
Not one of Mother Nature's own? Oh, perfect timing, Jo.
Uh, there's lots to tell you.
Well, start by telling me how our victim ended up in two pieces.
Of course.
Uh, the violent transection occurred between the rib cage and pelvis, penetrating mostly soft tissue, but also severing the spinal column.
There were significant breakaway spurs and splintering on the terminal side from where the vertebrae was cut.
That's consistent with the force provided by a motor-driven saw.
But which kind? Periodic striations on the bone rule out the circular or reciprocating varieties.
Leaving one likely culprit.
This man was cut in half by a chain saw.
Even more disturbing, the rawness of the surrounding flesh suggests that our victim was still alive when the sawing began.
Fortunately, the shock and massive blood loss wouldn't have - kept him that way for very long.
- Right.
Can you tell me why his legs are frozen in this kneeling position? Spontaneous onset of rigor as the result of cadaveric spasms.
tetany.
Muscle contractions caused by prolonged periods of continued stimulation.
In this case, caused by repetitive and deliberate electric shocks.
- He was tortured first? - Yeah.
Confirmed by these electrical burns.
So what do you think caused these penetrating wounds? Not sure, but I'm hoping these green flakes I found embedded in the tissue will shed some light.
Little heads up on the slasher flick would be nice.
Got something, Adam? Well, yeah, besides nightmares for the next three weeks.
Okay, we got a CODIS hit on our mystery girl from the bus.
DNA on her soda straw is a match to Carmen Vega.
Rap sheet a mile long and known gang tie to the Trinitarios.
Good work.
Thanks.
Carmen Vega, NYPD! Stop! Stop! Hey! Carmen, give up! Give up! It's over, Carmen.
Get down on the ground now and put your hands up! Don't do it.
It's too far; you won't make it! Yeah, Lovato she's a pretty good cop.
She's got a bright future.
Agreed.
Thank you for meeting with us, Agent Hicks.
- Much appreciated.
- Yeah.
Heard you had a little falling out with Carmen Vega earlier today.
Young woman made a bad decision, paid for it with her life.
Yeah.
Gallows humor occupational hazard, I guess.
We believe Carmen ran because she's involved with Benny Madera's murder.
I heard that, too.
Carmen may have been connected to Benny's murder, but she didn't act alone.
We need background information on her associates.
Let me show you what I've got.
Come on in.
Trinitarios one of the fastest-growing gangs on the East Coast.
And one of the most violent.
They originated inside the New York Department of Corrections? Yeah, as a protection squad for Dominican inmates.
They got tired of working for other gangs.
They decided to unify on the streets under their own identity.
Now they got a presence in neighborhoods all over the city, and they're starting to spread to the suburbs.
Anywhere they can sell their drugs and guns.
As long as they do, Mexican and Colombian cartels will keep providing them with product.
Where does Benny fit in? Benny? Middle management in a splinter crew out of Washington Heights.
He had a dozen or so runners, drug dealers working for him.
Who did he take orders from? Well, my best guess is one of these three mystery lowlifes.
Lovato was supposed to find out who they were, but Benny he was always very careful.
Never mentioned a name or anything else that would expose who was above him.
What do we know about Carmen Vega? Low-level foot soldier.
Not much street cred to speak of.
Seeing Lovato on that bus provided the perfect opportunity to change that.
Carmen was the only one who knew Lovato's real identity.
And that Benny had vouched for a cop.
Sharing information with the right person would have ensured her instant career advancement.
Mm-hmm.
Have a seat.
So what about Detective Lovato's safety? I need to know they won't target her next.
Well, even the Trinitarios wouldn't cross that line.
Going after a cop would bring too much heat.
And even if they wanted to, they're not gonna get the chance.
- Why's that? - Well, in a few days, a grand jury is gonna hand down a RICO indictment on the Trinitarios.
And once they flip, we're looking at, uh, two dozen bonus convictions.
Look, I'm sorry about Carmen and Benny, but if they weren't dead already, they'd be spending the rest of their miserable lives behind bars.
That doesn't change the fact that we have a murder to solve.
I think Benny was killed to send a message to the Trinitarios not to make the same mistake.
Whoever did it wanted people in his crew talking about it.
We need to find out what they're saying.
If there's chatter on the streets, I got a C.
I.
in my bag that's gonna tell us all about it.
? Running from a rhythm ? Hiding from the summer ? Tell me I'm forgiven ? Treat me like a brother ? Lay down a warning ? Your shoulders of fortune Make you feel like a light turned on in your head And you curse all the words you said in her bed Feels like a fall from all you know ? And the hold on your goals Have passed like that from you.
? Raymond wants to tell you something about the Benny Madera murder.
- Come on.
- Yeah! Come on.
I'm listening.
Okay, if I was a cop, I'd be looking for a boy named Toasty.
Toasty? He's been in Benny's crew for about a year.
Real name is Hector.
I don't remember his last name.
How'd you know Hector was involved in Benny's murder? Toasty's got a big mouth, okay? He's been bragging about doing Toro with a chain saw in some warehouse on the West Side.
- Where'd you hear that? - Around the way.
Come on.
All right, all right, go wait by the car.
Look, the kid's got a bad attitude, but he's the real deal.
When it comes to reliable information, he's batting at thousands.
If Raymond said he heard Toasty killed Benny, trust me, that's who did.
What do you got, Sheldon? The trace from the electrical burns on Benny's chest is automotive paint.
As you know, manufacturers use slightly different paint components and pigments for each model made.
They also change the formulas every year.
Right.
So I ran the sample through the diffractometer, then compared the isolated phases to the various OEM databases.
Came back as a GM color called Seamist Green aka Springfield Green and Pinehurst Green.
That formulation was only used in 1972, but on eight of GM's most popular.
Skylark, Firebird, Camaro, just to name a few.
Run them through DMV, compare registrations to known associates of the Trinitario street gang.
Anything else you can give me to narrow this down? Hold on.
Hey, Raymond.
Toasty own a green car? Yeah, a Buick.
Bought it off his old man.
Refine your search to only '72 Buicks.
Title transferred to a Hector from an owner of the same last name.
Okay, I'm on it.
What's, uh, what's going on? Looks like Raymond's hitting streak might still stand.
Hector "Toasty" Mendez.
This guy should get a gold medal in the felony Olympics.
He's got 17 arrests this year and two open drug warrants to boot.
If he killed Benny, warrants are the least of his worries.
Yeah.
I never would have pegged you as an undercover.
I guess that's kind of the point though, isn't it? Yeah.
Kinda.
You know, the view inside wasn't what I expected.
After a while, targets stop looking like targets and they started looking like ordinary people.
Ordinary people who sell drugs to kids and solve their problems with a chain saw.
Boys like that get recruited as young as nine.
Now, that's not an excuse for what they grow up to become and things that they do.
They join 'cause they want to feel loved, accepted, safe.
Things they don't feel at home.
Things I didn't feel at home.
You found a better way.
I got lucky.
Went to go live with my abuela.
She made my brothers and me feel special, protected.
But it came pretty damn close.
Flip of a coin, I wouldn't be sitting in a cop car, I'd be running from it.
That doesn't mean we should take it easy on the ones who weren't so lucky.
Somebody breaks the law, they get locked up.
End of story.
But not all offenders are the same.
People can surprise you sometimes.
What about Benny Madera? Did he surprise you? ? Watching her ? Strolling in the night ? So white ? Wondering why ? It's only after dark ? In her eyes ? A distant firelight ? Burns bright wondering ? Why ? It's only after dark ? I find myself ? In her room - Gracias, papi.
- Mira, mami chula.
You want my money you're gonna have to earn it the hard way.
Was that hard enough? You handle yourself real good, chica.
I'm good at a lot of things.
¿Cómo te llamas? Anita.
I'm Benny.
Mi amigos call me Toro.
Interested in being my friend, Anita? Friends I got.
A job's what I need.
I'll make you a deal.
Beat me and I'll put you to work.
Rack 'em.
? Now I know her secret name.
There's our guy.
Truchas! Five-O! Cierra la puerta! You all right? - Yeah, never better.
- Cochina! Hey! Moron, one more word out of you, and I'm gonna duct tape your mouth shut.
We've got you at 25 vials of crack, Toasty.
Those drugs weren't mine.
They were in your pockets, Hector.
I was holding them for a friend.
You've got an answer for everything.
So tell me why you murdered Benny Madera.
Hells, no, you ain't pinning that on me.
Then who did kill Benny? All I know is what I heard.
The Bull got got, 'cause he was played by the hot lady cop.
We found your green Buick.
Great, 'cause I lost it.
When do I get it back? Never.
It was recovered from an abandoned lot in Queens.
Somebody doused the interior with gasoline and set it on fire.
Most likely in an attempt to destroy evidence.
But, you know, the beauty of a 1972 Buick is very few plastic parts.
Means the fire spread nice and slow.
Gave the FDNY plenty of time to put out the blaze before the car and its contents were completely burned.
Guess what we found in your trunk.
The jumper cables and battery used to torture Benny.
As well as the chain saw used to cut him in half while he was still alive.
You got a clever explanation for that, Hector? I had nothing to do with those things, I swear.
Then why were they in your car? Other day my homegirl Carmen stops by my place.
Says she needs to borrow my ride to run some errands, so I gave it to her, but she never brought it back.
Who knows? Maybe it was Carmen who sawed off the Bull.
Too bad you can't ask her.
So you're blaming Benny's murder on Carmen? Just keeping it real, Detective.
Call me Honest Abe.
I cannot tell a lie.
That was George Washington.
Same difference.
What's her problem? We got the guy.
L, want to talk about it? No.
Hey, come on, you're gonna have to come clean with me sooner or later.
Is there something that you want to know? Go ahead.
Ask me.
All right.
Your relationship with Benny was more than professional, wasn't it? Go to hell, Flack.
Oh, come on.
Hey! Whoa, hey! Am I wrong? Because from where I stand, it looks to me like you're taking Benny's death a little more personal than maybe you should.
Damn right I'm gonna take Benny's murder personally.
Because you had feelings for him? Because I owe him my life.
Siéntate.
¿Todo bien? I know, Anita.
I know what you really are.
A cop.
That's crazy.
- You know I would never front like that.
- Stop.
I'm not mad.
I understand you did what you had to do.
It's the way this game is played.
I just wish it had been anybody but you.
You're better than all this, Benny.
You have to know that.
You have to walk away, chula.
And never show your face around here again, 'cause if you do there's only one way out for either one of us that's with blood.
How'd he make you as a cop? He never told me.
He didn't tell anybody else either.
Because if he would have, I would've been hanging in that warehouse right next to him.
So the whole time you were busy playing Benny, he was busy falling in love with you.
That's why I was relieved to walk away.
Different time, different place, something might have happened between us.
But my job means more to me than just about anything.
So if you think for one second I would do anything to jeopardize that, you're crazy.
? The fire obliterated the interior of the car along with any trace that might've been in it.
I did, though, uh, get a partial print on the door handle.
All right, good.
Maybe we'll get lucky with AFIS.
What about the saw? Eh, this blade's covered in blood, tissue, bone fragments.
I'll bet the farm, it comes back to Benny Madera.
Well, looks like we got our murder weapon.
Yeah, but the heat melted the plastic handles and any chance of pulling a print off of 'em.
Same thing with the jumper cables.
But at least now we know what caused the vic's chest wounds.
Green paint flakes could've transferred to the vic's wound from the negative polarity clamp Which gets connected to the metal ground of the car sometimes covered in paint.
We got some trace Hawkes found on our vic.
Question is, what the hell is this? Looks like some sort of melted plastic.
You think it's connected? I'm not sure, but I will find out.
Not your first time with a chain saw? I'm from Montana, Mac if I hadn't left, I'd probably be a lumberjack right now.
Okay, check this out.
Sid said that Benny Madera was cut on a horizontal axis, one inch above the iliac crest of his pelvis.
Directionality of the blade marks and striations on the bone would suggest that the incision was initiated on his right lateral side.
Why does that matter? Well, our only suspect, Hector "Toasty" Mendez is right-handed.
Okay.
Cutting from the left, he wouldn't have had any leverage over the saw.
Resulting in a less consistent and level cut trajectory.
Right.
But if he was left-handed, and his dominant hand was guiding the saw, then leverage wouldn't have been an issue, and he could've made a straight, steady cut.
Well, I'm not sure that's enough to rule out Hector entirely.
I knew you were gonna say that, so try this on for size.
The easiest way to make a steady cut with a 20-pound chain saw is to keep your elbows down and hold the blade directly in front of you.
- Lines up perfectly.
- Lucky for us if Hector Mendez was over six feet tall, which he isn't.
He's only five-foot-six.
He could've been standing on something, too.
Not according to the blood spatter at the scene.
There was no void in the floor.
Hector was telling the truth.
He didn't kill Benny.
? If Hector Mendez didn't kill Benny, who did? Let's ask the person who accused him in the first place.
Hicks' confidential informant, Raymond? Well, either he got bad information on the street or was flat-out lying to cover for somebody else.
I would say smart money's on option number two.
The melted plastic from the trunk of the Buick was a heavyweight poncho made of ethylene vinyl acetate.
Benny's blood was all over it.
Killer must've been wearing it while he was cutting him up.
The plastic distorted when it was exposed to the heat, encasing several items that were balled-up inside leather gloves and a bloody rag with one eyelash attached.
The poncho and the gloves protected the killer's clothing and hands from blood spatter but not their face.
So they wiped their face with the rag, rolled it up inside the poncho with the gloves, and hoped that the car fire would destroy it.
Right, which would've worked if the flames had reached the trunk, but the samples were only exposed to indirect heat.
So I was able to extract two distinct DNA profiles from the fibers.
One from Benny Madera's blood.
The other from the epithelials transferred when the killer was wiping his face.
Now, the heat did cause the cells to lyse, but I was able to get a complete profile.
Okay, tell me you found a CODIS match.
Yes, ma'am.
Raymond Cruz.
Raymond wants to tell you something about the Benny Madera murder.
Hicks' C.
I.
tortured and murdered Benny Madera.
Science doesn't lie, Raymond, no matter how long you stare at it.
DNA proves you killed Benny Madera, there's no question about that.
Then what the hell is your question? I want to know why.
Was it because Benny invited an undercover cop into the crew? That's why he got the jumper cables.
But that's not the reason he had to die.
What was? Payback.
Eight months ago, DEA busts down my door, finds a big stash of rock Toro asked me to sit on.
I could have done ten years, handled it easy.
But Agent Hicks told me the weight was enough to buy me a mandatory life sentence.
Said there was only one way out.
To inform on your fellow gang members.
Hicks owned my ass.
Made me earn my freedom by being his full-time rat.
I would have been a freer man behind bars.
So you blame Benny for putting you in that position, when you chose to live your life as a criminal? Benny broke the code.
You think he informed the police about the drugs? Not until Carmen found out Anita was a cop.
That's when I knew Benny had sold me out.
You're wrong, Raymond.
Benny didn't sell you or anybody else out.
You killed him because you thought he betrayed you and the Trinitarios, but the reality is, there was only one person doing that, and that was you.
Only you.
Put it down on paper.
You got a set of brass balls, Taylor.
What the hell is my informant doing in police custody? At the moment, he's writing out a confession for the murder of Benny Madera.
Hector "Toasty" Mendez killed Benny.
No, he didn't.
Carmen Vega reported to Raymond that Lovato was a cop.
He told her to borrow Hector's car, then together they jumped Benny, tossed him in the trunk, and brought him to that warehouse.
Ah? Raymond shocked Benny with a car battery over and over again, demanding to know what he told Lovato about the Trinitarios, if he was an undercover cop, too.
Of course, Benny was a dead man, no matter what he said.
Raymond pointed the finger at Hector Mendez to cover his own ass, but you already knew that.
What are you talking about? We subpoenaed your C.
I.
contact reports.
You met with Raymond Cruz one hour after Benny's body was discovered.
So what? He never mentioned one word about committing any murder.
He didn't have to.
It was where the two of you met that spoke volumes.
You're late.
I was saying good-bye to an old friend.
- Whose car is this? - I borrowed it.
We lifted your fingerprint off the door handle.
You were in Hector's Buick.
So when you heard me ask about it in the garage, you knew that Raymond was lying about him, and you knew why.
Hey, Raymond - Toasty own a green car? - Yeah, Buick.
Bought it off his old man.
Do you have any idea how important he is? Raymond can serve up the Trinitarios on a silver platter.
Drugs, kidnapping, murders all of it.
We can take them down if my star witness gets on the stand and spills his guts.
Doesn't it bother you that your star witness is a sadistic, cold-blooded killer? I can live with that, considering what he means to the big picture.
The only picture I see is of a man fooling himself.
You had a responsibility to uphold the letter of the law, not pick and choose the parts that make your job easier! I spent four years of my life building this case, and nothing about that was easy.
And you want me to throw it all away because some gangbanging degenerate couldn't control himself? Raymond didn't compromise this case, Hicks.
You did that.
Excuse me.
Sorry.
- Good night.
- Night.
About time you showed up.
What are you doing here, Flack? Been a long day.
Figured you might be hungry, - so I bought you some takeout.
- From where? Yang Chows, 39th.
Well done.
Best kung pao in Midtown.
Come on.
- Thanks.
- Mm-hmm.
Do you want to tell me why you're really here? I was wrong to assume that you crossed a line with Benny.
You're better than that.
I was a total jerk.
I'm sorry.
What you really want to know is if I slept with him.
To clear the air no I didn't.
Relieved, aren't you? What? Why? I think you're jealous.
I think you're delusional.
Maybe.
Maybe not.
It's getting late.
I should probably go.
Hey, Flack.
I'll see you tomorrow.