CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

Early morning. An old pick-up truck carries a young Mexican boy and a dog in the back. The truck stops and the boy jumps out to re-stock a Spanish language dispenser for "Hoy" newspapers. At the corner of 28th Street in East Las Vegas, the boy opens the newspaper box to find a decapitated, hairless head sitting on top of yesterday's papers.

Later that morning, Catherine Willows uses a drill to release the bolts that hold the dispenser stand to the concrete.

While Nick processes the dispenser box in the garage, Dr. Robbins examines the decapitated head in the Coroner's Office as Catherine takes photos. Dr. Robbins lifts the lips with forceps and finds something in the mouth: a dead baby rattlesnake.

Dr. Robbins tells Catherine his findings: female, early 30s, Hispanic. The minimal dilation in her pupils indicates she was decapitated after she was dead. Her hair was torn out in chunks post-mortem. There is a nine-digit social security number stamped on her dental bridge.

Nick dusts the newspaper the head was on with magnetic powder. He finds two distinct palm prints on each side of the paper. He informs Catherine and she tells him to run the partials off of the box as well.

Jessie Menken, zoologist, studies the snake and tells Nick that it is not the typical U.S. rattlesnake. It is a Crotalus simus, indigenous to Southern Mexico.

On top of the Tropical Surf Casino, Warrick and Brass investigate a white handicapped-accessible van. A very dead Vincent DeCarlo, 28, sits in the driver's seat with five hundred dollars in his wallet and a Nevada license. From his expensive clothes it is obvious he wasn't a chauffeur. Even though there is a wheelchair in the van, there is no indication DeCarlo is handicapped.

DeCarlo has a gunshot to the head and part of his ear is missing. Sofia arrives and tells Warrick that the crater in the windshield faces outward, indicating that he was shot from inside the van. There is also a spot of blood on his lapel, which is inconsistent with the head wounds.

The CSIs deduce that the shooter must have shot DeCarlo from the wheelchair, and that he was hit in the face when he turned around to answer a question from the killer.

Detective Vega and Catherine investigate the decapitated victim, Veronica Juarez's apartment. They found out from the social security number on her dental work that she had no immediate family in the U.S. Because the CSIs think she may have been a gangbanger girlfriend, Catherine is surprised to see a diploma on the wall from the University of Texas, Bachelors of Science, Communications, 2000.

Nick finds a digital camera containing pictures of Veronica with Hispanic men in cowboy clothing. Catherine also discovers a baggie of crystal meth on the bedside table.

Nick finds a flyer for a music club called Hacienda Corona advertising a band called "Extremo." The musicians wear cowboy outfits and pose with an AK-47. Detective Vega tells the CSIs that the people who listen to their music are called Sinaloan Cowboys and are known to be brutal. Sinaloa is Southern Mexico, the area the rattlesnake came from.

Nick and Vega enter the Hacienda Corona and see Extremo playing as Sinaloan cowboys and cowgirls dance to the music. Vega approaches the barback and asks if he recognizes the picture of Veronica. He says her name is Carla.

Nick notices the lyrics that the lead singer, Rafael Salinas, 27, is singing: "The lady was a liar, she wasn't who she said she was...she stole my heart, so I stole her life...and made the snake eat a snake."

Backstage, Vega and Nick try to talk to Salinas, but they are stopped by the band's manager, Javier Lileez. He tells the CSIs that the narcocorrido song they heard was written ten years before, indicating it was coincidental that it matched a homicide description. Javier recognizes the photo of Veronica as "Carla" as well.

Sara enters Grissom's office and tells him she is sorry for not being more helpful with Ecklie, the director. Grissom tells her that Ecklie wanted to break up their team. Sara notes that Grissom is more than her boss; he is the reason she moved to Vegas. Seeing that she has made Grissom uncomfortable, Sara says she realizes she looks for validation in inappropriate places.

In the Coroner's Office, Dr. Robbins examines Vincent's head and tells Sofia that the injury to the victim's right ear is a separate wound, unrelated to the shot in the face. The bullet fragment they have is too small to identify so they need to go back to the crime scene to find a bullet. Robbins informs Warrick that wheelchairs have serial numbers and that he should investigate.

Warrick and Brass enter Bonnie Bakerset's room in the retirement home. The wheelchair was traced back to her, but she died the week previous. Her grandson bought her the top-of-the-line wheelchair about a year ago.

Bonnie's room is filled with unopened boxes: air purification systems, yoga tapes, fishing rods, cleaning products. All the shipping labels are from N.Z.A. Henderson--telemarketers.

Stuart Manslow, 80, and Betsy Lewis, 81, ask the CSIs what's happening. They show their badges. Betsy reveals that when the "nice salesman" started calling, Bonnie would talk for hours and that's how all the product was bought.

Back at the top of the Tropical Surf Casino, Sofia sets up a trajectory rod in the windshield bullet hole. Greg appears and she tells him they need to find the shell casing. She asks for his pen and then uncaps it. She holds her hands up like she's holding a gun and then tosses the pen cap. The pen cap falls down the ramp and into the doorjamb. Greg retrieves the cap and finds a 9-millimeter casing behind it.

Nick listens to Extremo's music while studying old Mexican newspaper case files. He tells Catherine that a narcocorrido is a drug ballad about real actual crimes, dates and times. Nick shows Catherine an old case on the computer--an image of a woman's severed head with a rattlesnake dangling out of her mouth. Veronica's murder was "life imitating art."

Nick goes back to the newspaper that the head was found on and sees that there is an article at the top: "NARCOCORRIDOS: CULTURE KILLERS, PART 2 BY VERONICA JUAREZ."

Catherine and Nick enter the offices of "Hoy," the Spanish language newspaper. The editor-in-chief, Eduardo Maytorena, tells them that Veronica was working undercover trying to expose the narcocorridos. She felt the music was destroying young people.

One day, after the first part of the story was published, a man entered the office with a lit black candle telling Veronica that she must be silenced. Nick finds the candle in Veronica's desk and sees that there are deep fingerprints in the wax.

Nick finds the owner of the print in AFIS: Elindio Zapata. Detective Vega and Nick track down Zapata in the back of a market, in front of an altar to Jesus Malverde. Nick finds a small finger bone in front of a small shrine to Malverde. They see Veronica's leather jacket on a rack, with tire tracks on the back. There is blood on the inside lining. The CSIs take Zapata in.

Under interrogation, Zapata acknowledges that he went to the newspaper office and threatened Veronica. He tells Nick that the bone he found was a chicken bone, not a human finger bone. Zapata also says that the jacket came from a nice "muchacho" who gave it to him for "protection." Zapata claims to be a descendent of Jesus Malverde, the Mexican Robin Hood, who was hung on May 3, 1909. Nick inks Zapata's hands.

Sofia tells Warrick that the bloodstain on Vincent DeCarlo's lapel matches a Dax Blanchard. Warrick calls Brass and says he thinks Blanchard is the "nice young man" who was calling Bonnie.

Warrick and Brass walk through the offices of N.Z.A. where they see men in expensive suits crammed in cubicles, each one giving a hard sales pitch into the phone. The room manager points out Dax Banchard to the CSIs, who is trying to close a deal. Dax puts his lead on hold and the CSIs notice that he is carrying a semi-automatic in a shoulder holster.

Brass interrogates Dax. Brass noticed Dax is the number two guy on the sales board, behind Vincent DeCarlo, implying that he may have killed him. Dax said he saw DeCarlo yesterday morning and confronted him about selling to his grandmother and taking all the money she had. When he was accosted by Dax, DeCarlo hit him in the nose. Dax then spit on DeCarlo--explaining how his blood got on his lapel.

Dax tells Brass that his grandmother is not Bonnie Bakerset, but rather "Fran," and she lives in Daytona Beach.

Nick informs Catherine that the palm prints on the newspaper are not Elindio Zapata's. Catherine tells Nick that Veronica was run over by a Toyo Open Country MT thirty-eight-x-fifteen-point-five by eighteen tire. They also notice that it was a retread tire and that only one place in Vegas specializes in this particular retread.

Nick and Catherine find Rafael Salinas at the specialty tire store. He tells them that he was seeing "Carla" until he saw Veronica Juarez's article and found out who she was. He tells the CSIs that narcocorridos music is entertainment and that he didn't kill Veronica. She was a traitor and that is not taken lightly by Sinaloans.

Sofia searches a computer database of cartridge headstamps and ID's the casing found in the parking structure to a DWM. 1939: Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabrik. The bullet was German from World War II. The shooter was an old soldier who brought home the bullets from war as a trophy.

Warrick talks to Stuart Manslow who tells him that Bonnie had Alzheimer's. She was called up by Vincent DeCarlo once in the morning and then again at night because she forgot she had spoken to him. Vincent started calling all the people in the retirement home and when he called Stuart, he offered to take him to the bank to open a checking account. Stuart borrowed Bonnie's wheelchair and had Vincent pick him up in a handicapped van. Vincent drove him to the bank and then to the casino rooftop afterwards.

Vincent asked for his money and Stuart shot him, hitting his right ear. When Vincent turned around he was shot again in the head. Warrick asks for his gun and Stuart hands it over.

Rafael Salina's palm prints don't match the ones found on the newspapers and his tire treads don't match the ones found on Veronica Juarez's jacket.

Detective Vega and Nick study the treads of the trucks in the parking lot of Hacienda Corona, the club where the Sinaloan Cowboys hang out. They find a truck with tire treads that match their photo.

Nick approaches Juanito Concha, 19, the barback. He's not working tonight and is dressed in full Sinaloan Cowboy regalia, listening to the music. Juanito owns the 2004 Ford F150 that has the treads matching the marks on the back of Veronica's jacket. Nick notices the lock of dark hair on Juanito's belt and asks him what it's made of. This panics Juanito and he runs. The CSIs draw their guns on him. Suddenly, the music stops and the other fifty or so Sinaloan Cowboys draw their guns. Vega and Nick shout out in Spanish that Juanito murdered an innocent woman. Everyone returns to their drinks and conversations and the CSIs exit with Juanito.

In the Interrogation Room, Juanito admits that he killed the traitor, Veronica, in order to impress the cowboys. He ran her over with his monster truck. He didn't want to die a barback or as a dishwasher. He tore off her hair as Elindio Zapata watched, carrying a knife in one hand and a snake in the other. Zapata pulled her finger bone out of a bonfire where they disposed of her body. Juanito sings a narcocorrido song in Spanish about himself: "I crushed the dog with the tongue of a snake...I took a trophy of the deed. I asked Malverde to guide me..."