Out of the Sky

Out of the Sky
Season	7
Number	5
Writer	Christopher Silber
Director	Nathan Hope
Original Airdate	October 22, 2010
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Out of the Sky is the fifth episode in Season Seven of CSI: NY.

Synopsis

The team tries to find out who is responsible for a jewel heist at the home of a powerful defense attorney. However, they soon discover that everybody who comes in contact with the jewels is turning up dead.

Plot

As lawyer Roland Carson argues with a client, Melvin La Grange, several thieves burst into Carson’s apartment. Carson’s bodyguard James Belson rushes Carson and La Grange to safety, but La Grange lunges for his gun and only gets off one shot before the robbers open fire on him, killing him. Belson is shot in the abdomen, but when the police arrive, he’s still alive and is taken to the hospital. Mac questions Carson, who tells him that the only thing he’s concerned with is five million in jewels that the robbers took. The jewels belong to a client who will be furious to know they’re missing. Danny goes to the hospital to see James Belson, who used to ride patrol with him but left the police force in disgrace after he overlooked a gun in a patrol car and two cops were shot by a suspect as a result. Belson tells Danny that the robbers broke in and he took a bullet. The two catch up briefly and Belson tries to entice Danny into working security, which pays much better than police work, but the CSI demurs. Flack and Danny locate the helicopter the robbers used to escape and find one of the men dead in the chopper, abandoned by his accomplices. At the lab, Hawkes recovers a microchip from one of the empty bags found in the helicopter. Adam uses the signal to trace any other chips used and is surprised to find the signal leads back to the morgue. Mac and Hawkes go down to Autopsy and discover the signal is coming from a John Doe on one of Sid’s tables. Mac finds the microchip in the man’s shoe treads. Sid performs an autopsy on the man and finds he died from a gunshot wound to the head, but also points out a cut on his throat—which Sid recovers epithelials from.

Jo identifies the dead robber as Logan Peele but isn’t able to link him to John Doe. Lindsay analyzes algae on the unidentified man’s shoes and determines it came from a fountain filled with coins and that he likely was making a wish when a bag full of gems fell out of the sky. The tracking chip from the bag became embedded in his shoe and led the robbers right to him. Hawkes matches the epithelials from John Doe’s neck wound to a thief named Arnold Vonley. Flack interrogates Arnold, who admits he mugged the dead man and took his watch, but left him alive—and didn’t touch his “gym bag.” Amused, Flack informs him that the bag contained five million dollars worth of jewels. A young woman named Jenny Harper comes to the station looking for her boyfriend, Heath Kirkfield, who left their apartment that morning to turn in a bag of jewels he found. She’s devastated when Flack tells her that Heath is dead. Jenny tells the detective she got a garbled call from his phone that morning, and turns over her cell phone to Flack. She tells the detective that she convinced Heath to turn the jewels in, and worries that she may have gotten him killed. Danny analyzes flower pollen from the treads of the vehicle that drove away from the helicopter and finds a nursery that carries all the types: New Grove Flowers. When Danny and Flack go to the nursery, they find the remaining two thieves dead in a car, shot execution style.

The men died twelve hours ago, while Heath was killed eight hours ago, meaning the two couldn’t be responsible. Lindsay identifies them as Ted and Paul Kendrick, brothers who were defended on a robbery charge two years ago by Roland Carson. When Hawkes identifies the gun used to kill them and Heath as Roland Carson’s, Mac interrogates the attorney, who scoffs at the idea that he would have set up a robbery and used his own gun. He maintains any of his clients could have accessed his gun. Mac is unconvinced. When Hawkes identifies a substance on the floor of Carson’s apartment as sand from a sandbag mixed with gunshot residue, they realize Belson staged the robbery, and had the robbers shoot him through a sandbag to minimize his injury but to make him look like a victim. Danny goes to Belson’s hospital room, but the man has checked himself out—and is headed for the apartment Heath Kirkfield shares with Jenny Harper. Danny catches Belson at Jenny’s door and talks the bitter ex-cop down. Mac returns the gems to Carson who notices a valuable ring missing. Jenny, who discovered the ring beneath her pillow, takes it to the fountain where Heath made his wish and tosses it in.

Cast

Main Cast

• Gary Sinise as Mac Taylor
• Sela Ward as Jo Danville
• Carmine Giovinazzo as Danny Messer
• Anna Belknap as Lindsay Messer
• Robert Joy as Sid Hammerback
• AJ Buckley as Adam Ross
• Hill Harper as Sheldon Hawkes
• Eddie Cahill as Don Flack

Guest Cast

• Gregory Harrison as Roland Carson
• Coby Ryan McLaughlin as James Belson
• Justin Baldoni as Heath Kirkfield
• Melissa Ordway as Jenny Harper
• Moe Irvin as Melvin La Grange
• Mike Foy as Arnold Vonley
• Craig Baxley, Jr. as Ted Kendricks
• Austin Priester as Logan Peele
• Julie McKinnon as A/V Lab Tech

See Also

• List of CSI: NY episodes
• CSI:New York Season 7
• Category:Images from Out of the Sky