| “ | Do you want some cheese with that whine? | ” |
— Lt. Provenza (to DDA Rios) | ||
The LAPD flies a material witness into Los Angeles to testify, but in a horrible turn of events their witness winds up as the key suspect in an entirely new murder. Personal and professional stress takes a toll on Flynn. And the squad takes bets when Rusty brings a girl from class to hang out with him at the department.
The Victim[]
- Louis Berg, owner of a convenience store which was presumably robbed by Lloyd Gibbs. He was later stated to be a "dirt bag" and a bookie, and the store was mostly a front for his gambling operation.
- Dennis Tucker, friend of Scott Perry and Lloyd Gibbs who was murdered a few years before during a supposed argument over money from the friend group's theft ring.
The Suspects[]
- Lloyd Gibbs, a material witness in the murder of Dennis Tucker brought to LA to testify against Scott Perry.
- Mark Vogel, the fence for Scott Perry, Dennis Tucker, and Lloyd Gibbs. Was also revealed to be hugely in debt to Louis Berg.
Evidence[]
- A .45 caliber 1911 recovered from Lloyd Gibbs' motel room. The gun was later matched to be the weapon used to murder Louis Berg, but also Dennis Tucker, as the murder weapon from that case was never recovered.
- Lloyd Gibbs' sneakers, covered in blood, which match the shoe prints at the scene.
- Multiple 9-1-1 calls of the incident, many of which describe Lloyd Gibbs as the possible suspect.
- Timeline:
- 1:16 AM: Louis Berg shot and killed
- 1:21 AM: Lloyd Gibbs jumping in a puddle outside the store, presumably trying to clean blood off his sneakers.
- 3:10 AM: Lloyd Gibbs staggering through the motel parking lot back to his room, extremely drunk.
Plot[]
On behalf of the District Attorney's Office, Lieutenants Provenza and Flynn set up Lloyd Gibbs in a motel room in preparation for him testifying the following day. The next morning, however, the Lieutenants arrive at the motel which is surrounded by LAPD, with SWAT preparing to enter. Lt. Sean Dorsey, SWAT commander on-scene, tells the MCD Lieutenants that Lloyd is a prime suspect in a robbery-homicide which took place the previous night in a convenience store near the motel. While Flynn attempted to get Lloyd to come out his room, SWAT breached and extracted him from the room, also finding a lot money and a pistol in the room.
A little while later, DDA Emma Rios is seen in court prosecuting Scott Perry for the murder for which Lloyd Gibbs was supposed to serve as a material witness. After Provenza and Flynn turned up at the court house empty handed, Rios managed to get a 1-hour recess in the trial on the basis of the upcoming lunch break interrupting Lloyd's testimony. Back at the PAB, Provenza briefed DDA Rios and Capt. Sharon Raydor that Lloyd has been arrested for fleeing the scene of a crime, armed robbery, resisting arrest, and 1st degree murder. Rios admonishes the Lieutenants for "screwing up" Lloyd's placement, but the Lt.'s fire back stating they did exactly as ordered. Rios tells Raydor that she has been preparing Scott Perry's prosecution for two years, and without Lloyd's testimony it's unlikely he will be convicted. According to Rios, Scott Perry, Dennis Tucker, and Lloyd Gibbs (all from Arizona) operated a theft ring, stealing moving vans and fencing their contents for money. Supposedly after an argument over money, Scott shot Dennis Tucker to which Lloyd was a witness to and agreed to testify against Scott. When Raydor questions Rios about why Perry wasn't given a deal, Rios reveals that the DA's Office believes Perry was paid to kill Dennis (most likely his fence), and she doesn't want to give Perry a deal until he gives him up. Sharon agrees with her detectives, stating that unless they have strict order to do so, LAPD officers are not required to babysit the DA's witnesses. After Rios left, Raydor ordered his detectives to stay put. Guessing what was coming, Provenza immediately defended their actions by stating they were never informed that Lloyd could be dangerous, and he was definitely unarmed when they left him at the motel and this whole case is a big misunderstanding.
During this conversation, Lt. Tao arrived with Sanchez and Sykes from the crime scene with evidence, which unfortunately suggested that Lloyd is the one who robbed the store and killed the owner, but also casted doubt about his role in the original murder as well, as the weapon he had in his room was also the murder weapon used to kill Dennis Tucker. DDA Rios and Det. Sanchez go to the courthouse in order to get a continuance, which they got thanks to Sanchez's little white lie in which he claimed Lloyd Gibbs was being threatened and LAPD had taken him into protective custody. Unfortunately the continuance was only for 24-hours, after which the trial will continue, with or without Lloyd Gibbs' testimony. In an interview room, Lloyd told Provenza and Flynn that the shopkeeper was already dead when he got there, so he had no choice but to steal. During this same time, Sykes told everyone in the observation room that Louis Berg, the store owner, was a bookie, suggesting there might be a lot of people who wanted him dead and Lloyd might be telling the truth about the murder. After Lloyd seemed to not take the matter seriously, Flynn threatened to arrest him on the spot for murder, promting Lloyd to reveal that he was with a friend — Shampagne (with an "S") — the previous night (even though he was told not to call anybody).
At Lloyd's insistence, Flynn and Provenza interview his "absolutely not a prostitute" old childhood friend, Shampagne, who has a website and charges $800 for "conversation". She tells them she drove Lloyd to the market to pick up beer where she heard gunshots and left. Flynn and Provenza bring her to the station for further questioning as its looking more and more like Lloyd is the killer. However, while Lloyd admits to stealing the beer, he insists he didn't commit murder. Looking through Berg's bookie records, they find that someone owed him a $200,000 bet which might have been the reason for the killing. Tao tricks the somewhat dim-witted Shampagne (real name: Carla Owens) into giving him the password for her phone and they find a text telling her to get Lloyd to the market at 1:20 am which is after the murder. They realize that Lloyd might have been framed and the killer seems to be the same person who owed Berg money as the last digits of his cellphone number match the code Berg identified him by. Raydor and DDA Rios realize this is all an effort to discredit Lloyd's testimony at Scott Perry's trial as he had already testified at the preliminary hearing and if he were murdered, his prior testimony could still be read into the record.
To figure out what's going on, Raydor puts Lloyd and Shampagne into an interrogation room with a Privacy sign, claiming no one will be watching. The dim-witted duo believes this. She tries to convince Lloyd to confess to the murder, explaining that someone named Mark did it because he owed Berg thousands of dollars. Lloyd reveals that Mark also ordered the murder of Dennis. Shampagne tells Lloyd not to testify so Scott will get off and eventually the police will realize he couldn't have murdered Berg and Lloyd he will get off also. When Shampagne displays a (laughably horrific) phony Mexican accent for an audition Mark has supposedly gotten her for a Nachos commercial, Rios realizes that she is the mysterious 911 caller who reported Dennis' murder and is another witness in her murder trial. Shampagne reveals that Mark put the money and gun into Lloyd's hotel room to frame him and Raydor orders Tao to use her cellphone to text Mark, who is identified by Shampagne as the man Flynn and Provenza saw outside her house, to pick her up at the police station so they can arrest him. Julio arrests Shampagne too for conspiracy to commit murder. Lloyd tries to change his story and confess to the murder, but they reveal they have him on tape with Shampagne to his annoyance. With both Lloyd and Shampagne now willing to testify against him, Rios and Raydor approach Perry with a deal to testify against Mark instead if he confesses to Dennis's murder. Otherwise they will have Mark testify against him. Perry accepts the deal in the end and Mark is arrested.
Guest Cast[]
- Tommy Dewey (Lloyd Gibbs)
- Marissa McGowan (Shampagne/Carla Owens)
- Brian Patrick Stepanek (Mark Vogel)
- Madison McLaughlin (Kris Slater)
- Gregory Linington (Mr. Dillard)
- Bug Hall (Scott Perry)
- Kevin McCorkle (Lt. Sean Dorsey, LAPD Metropolitan Division, D Platoon)
- John Eric Bentley (LAPD Officer Lang)
Recurring[]
- Nadine Velazquez (DDA Emma Rios)
- Steve Tom (Judge Craig Richwood)
Episode Notes[]
- It was stated that the original murder in which Lloyd Gibbs is a witness to was not investigated by Major Crimes, and that MCD only handled Lloyd's transfer back to LA on behalf of the District Attorney's Office. This sort of matter would generally be handled "in-house" at the DA's Office through the DA's Bureau of Investigation and therefore the LAPD would not be needed. In the episode, no mention of the DA's BOI was made at any point.