| Minor Character: Miami | |
| Name | Dave Keppling Mark Boyd Pete Morton Andre Harding Logan Sheridan Numerous others |
| Gender | All male (known characters) |
| Family | Charlie Sheridan (brother; Sheridan) |
| City | Miami |
| Occupation | Middle school teacher (Keppling) Middle school student (Sheridan) |
| Pathology | Drug Dealers Murderer (Keppling) Attempted Murderers (Keppling; Boyd) Incriminator (Morton) |
| Modus Operandi | Drugs in shoes Bludgeoning (Keppling) Guns (Boyd; Morton) Vehicular Assault (Boyd; Morton) |
| No. of Victims | 1+ killed 2+attempted 1+ poisoned |
| Status | Incarcerated (Keppling; Morton; Harding) Deceased (Boyd) Unknown (Sheridan) |
| Portrayed By | Jim True-Frost (Keppling) Jeff Leaf (Boyd) Matt McTighe (Morton) Malik Whitworth (Harding) Cole Petersen (Sheridan) |
| First Appearance | Stand Your Ground |
The Middle School Shoe Drug Ring (so named in the wiki) is a ring of drug smugglers, later murderers and attempted murderers selling drugs to middle schoolers by recruiting students already there, in exchange for new shoes as payment which the drugs were smuggled in. It appears in Stand Your Ground in CSI:Miami.
History[]
A local Miami middle school was seeing an increase in drug usage amongst the students, likely even overdoses, which schoolteacher Valerie Gaynor caught onto. Under her own investigation, realizing someone in the school was leading the operations, getting children to spread the drugs around, she tracked the activity and put it in a journal she planned to report as evidence. She realized all the kids were smuggling it in shoes, which was their payment for the deeds. She found the shoe store owner, Andre Harding, and to her shock, a teacher in the art department, Dave Keppling, the leader of the dealing ring. Keppling realized he was had, and Gaynor ready to report, tried to run out of the store, but Keppling grabbed her arm and killed her with one swing of a dumbbell to her head, the weapon from Harding's display. The two, along with cronies Mark Boyd and Pete Morton once called over, kneeled over her body and tried to devise a plan, but when Calleigh Duquesne walked by the shop after wining and dining, the ring assumed she saw them and Gaynor, Keppling sending the two cronies to fetch or eliminate her. When Duquesne was in her car, the CSI was met with a gun in her face by Morton, demanding her to get out of the car. She drew her own weapon and announced she was police, demanding the duo surrender, which only lead to the car driving off and both guns hitting each other, Duquesne's falling to the ground. She got out of the car and saw the car speeding towards her, Boyd, with or without Morton's agreement, wanting to kill her because she's a cop and still suspecting she's a witness. Duquesne sees this and shoots twice at the car, causing it to crash and Boyd to die. Morton gets out and escapes, Duquesne horrified to discover Gaynor and assume she's dead from the crash, calling for backup as a result. Duquesne is questioned about her capacity and her blood alcohol levels, which are under the legal limit, but her lie about being with friends doesn't match that she was really with Jake Berkeley, who ordered more mimosas on her tab when they were together and inadvertently made her look like she drank too much even though her levels were fine. Morton's found by his blood in the passenger side, and he alleges a truck blocked them and they had to turn around, assuming Duquesne was "just crazily" firing her weapon at them, Morton "not" knowing why. Morton's kept in custody, and Duquesne's shocked and relieved to hear from Alexx Woods Gaynor wasn't killed in the car crash, but she was murder by blunt force trauma. Keppling's fingerprint covered is paint was found on her shoulder, but he says the two were in a relationship and he left it on her massaging her shoulders. He does feeding enough implied truth to look less suspicious, said he didn't know why she "looked so tense" the morning she was murdered. Suddenly, one of the students at the school, Beth Buckley, overdoses on her stash of drugs and starts to seize, leading her to an emergency hospital transport. Charlie and Logan Sheridan, two brothers whose home Gaynor snooped around on the grounds of, and Logan details the report, as well as his own arrest for possession the cops got wrong, clarifying with his own side of the story that doesn't tie to the drug ring in the end. The team finds Gaynor's journal and processes a "candy" in the back seat of her car. They realize she was keeping tabs on the operations and trying to take down the ring, the drugs being smuggled in to the kids as flavored "candy" concoctions. They find the dumbbell lodged in the crashed car, tying it to her murder by the markings in her wound, and when Harding's question and found with wads of cash in his register, they realize he sells the shoes the drugs are smuggled in with and arrest him. Eric Delko exonerates Duquesne's culpability when one of the bullets she shot is found in a tree where the "truck" should've been, proving once and for all Morton was lying to cover himself. The team soon after finds a tie pin—with the school logo on it, proving Keppling's the killer and drug dealer. Keppling's arrested and makes a full confession. Duquesne then irritably confronts Morton herself and tells the evidence that proves the truth. Morton then caves and admits to the attempt on her life, saying it was Boyd's idea. She just replies that they're going away for murder and attempted her. Horatio Caine then gets from Buckley who supplied her the drugs: Logan Sheridan, the younger of the two Sheridan brothers, who went to her school. Caine asks him, and he admits it. Caine says he's admittedly in trouble, but he offers Sheridan a chance if he gives up the names of the other kids, which he agrees to almost immediately. The adult leaders are incarcerated for their crimes, and it's unknown what penalties the kids faced if any.
Modus Operandi[]
The drugs, flavored and disguised as candy, were distributed to high school students, through other high school students smuggling them in hidden in shoes, which the children dealers kept as payment. Keppling directed the operations and watched the school to change the orders, Harding sold the shoes, and Boyd and Morton smuggled the drugs in and gave them to the kids dealing them. When they were found out by Valerie Gaynor, Keppling bludgeoned her to death with a dumbbell. When Calleigh Duquesne was nearly killed as a witness, Boyd and Morton first held her at gunpoint, then Boyd tried to run him over with the car the two were in, but Duquesne shot Boyd dead and crashed the car. Beth Buckley overdosed on the drugs she was on, but she lived. Other kids could've OD'd, whether living or dying afterward related to the drugs or the ring.
Known Members[]
- Dave Keppling (leader; incarcerated)
- Andre Harding (shoe seller and acessory; incarcerated)
- Mark Boyd (drug middleman and mercenary; deceased)
- Pete Morton (drug middleman and mercenary; incarcerated)
- Logan Sheridan (student drug dealer; status unknown)
- Numerous other unspecified children (student drug dealers; status unknown)
Known Victims[]
- Numerous unidentified kids (all dealt drugs; possibly overdosed and either lived or died)
- Valerie Gaynor (struck once in her head with a dumbbell)
- Calleigh Duquesne (held at gunpoint; later attempted to run over; she shot at the car instead)
- Beth Buckley (overdosed on drugs; lived)