The best The First 48 episodes have always been fairly obvious. Audiences will always mention the Memphis mass murder from “Lester Street,” the two-hour Tulsa mysteries “Chain of Death” and “Unspeakable,” or the creepy Atlanta episode “The House on Madrona Street” that verges on being a real-life horror movie. Over more than 20 seasons and hundreds of episodes, there are certain ones that simply have stuck in fans’ consciousness. But there’s a more recent episode that deserves to be in that conversation: Season 21’s “Cover Story.”
“Cover Story” is another Tulsa Homicide case that starts with the alleged suicide of a young woman named Iesha Wallace. Her boyfriend, Jermico Willis, appears distraught as he claims Iesha shot herself. But then-Detective Chase Calhoun quickly knows something is wrong, and he unravels a much more disturbing reality. What he finds—and the chess match that unfolds between Calhoun and Jermico—is genuinely tense and shocking on the level of any scripted crime drama. It’s one of the best episodes in the show’s history for how much spills out of it.
THE DETECTIVE’S JOURNEY
There’s no doubt that Tulsa Homicide is the best unit ever to appear on The First 48, and they’ve raised the standard for what viewers expect from law enforcement. One of the strengths of “Cover Story” is that it highlights one of the team’s most successful members, Chase Calhoun. Calhoun originally appeared in Season 19’s “Monster” as a member of the Robbery unit, then transferred to Homicide as the first replacement for fan-favorite Detective Ronnie Leatherman. He’s now a Lieutenant with the Tulsa Police Department, and this episode is one of his best featured stories, because he’s the perfect person to take the challenge head-on.
After Detective Jason White gives Calhoun a tour of the crime scene, it doesn’t take long for Calhoun to sense that Iesha’s death is not suicide. No one gets to become a homicide detective without good instincts—but Chase Calhoun is particularly adept at cutting through the nonsense. Upon conversing with Iesha’s relatives and finding out that she was a mother of three who didn’t even own a firearm, he, White, and Sergeant Dave Walker agree that foul play is likely involved. “Something’s just not right,” Calhoun declares to camera and the battle is on.
That’s not normally a descriptor for most First 48 episodes, but it is for “Cover Story.” It’s an example of how tenacious yet utterly levelheaded Chase Calhoun is, which is one of the many reasons why he’s advanced so far in the department. He’s the calmest person in Tulsa Homicide short of Ronnie Leatherman, yet under that tranquility, he has nerves of steel. Watch any one of his episodes and it’s obvious how dedicated he is to his work and how he’s practically an immovable object. This case is the best example of that: everything that Jermico Willis and his brother Terry try just makes Calhoun push back even harder. And he does it while still being as cool as the other side of the pillow.
Of all the detectives who have been on The First 48, Calhoun has one of the most interesting career trajectories to follow. Several investigators in different cities have been promoted out of Homicide and furthered their careers. Yet from his first appearance in “Monster,” helping Leatherman on a brutal shooting case, it was clear that Chase was headed for bigger and better things. His tenure in Homicide was one where he was always observing, learning and growing, and “Cover Story” shows the full range of not only his talents as an investigator, but who he is as a human being. Every great First 48 episode has a hero, and here that’s absolutely Chase Calhoun.
UNCOVERING A MURDER
It’s an unfortunate fact that many homicide victims are killed by someone that they know. There are countless First 48 episodes that involve someone being murdered by a current or former significant other. If that was all there was to “Cover Story,” it would be entertaining but not a classic. What elevates it is the scheme that Jermico and his brother try to pull off, and the machinations they attempt to get away with afterward, only to be met by Calhoun’s steely determination.
The story Jermico tells is that Iesha was “playing” with the firearm and when he went to take it from her, the weapon discharged. Calhoun’s first interview with Jermico is so well thought out that it’s surgical. He asks all the basic, expected questions and then without even changing his tone, starts poking at the logical inconsistencies in the narrative. He’s not afraid to reveal that he doesn’t believe it—but he does it in such a way that it’s just part of the dialogue. There’s no need for confrontation (one other reason The First 48 is more entertaining than most scripted crime dramas). It’s really smart for Detective Mark Kennedy to play the “bad cop” who gets to ask that question, because it sets Calhoun up as the “good cop,” even if it’s just another example of Tulsa’s well-established teamwork. The episode is structured in such a way that audiences understand more of the strategy that can come into play in a homicide investigation, which is a blessing because it feels like a true back-and-forth between sides.
A look into Jermico’s criminal history reveals that he’s threatened multiple girlfriends and used violence against some of them. Now his latest girlfriend has ended up deceased. The more Calhoun (and the audience) learns, the more disturbing the episode gets. The ever-reliable Corporal Joe Campbell shows Calhoun crime scene photos that prove Iesha’s wound could not have been self-inflicted. Phone records show Jermico called Terry before he phoned 911. It all comes to a head a month later, when Calhoun and White interview one of Jermico’s exes, who tells them that “Terry has been sending messages through people to deliver to me.”
That doesn’t stop her from sharing details of the abuse she suffered, and her fear of both Jermico and Terry, whom she says “gets what he wants.” Jason White calls the interview “disturbing,” and he’s absolutely right; it’s both heartbreaking and also inspiring, because the woman is willing to work past that fear and become one of two witnesses for the police. However, Calhoun relates in the very next scene that both witnesses were threatened outside the courthouse by a third person—whom he promptly has arrested. He doesn’t hesitate to push back, nor does he give any quarter in the interview that follows. And this is when The First 48 becomes a tense standoff between one stalwart detective and two audacious suspects. Audiences are actively rooting for Calhoun to not only get justice for Iesha, but to put away these two really bad guys. There’s an emotional undercurrent that emerges in the episode of shock, anger but also gratitude and relief that Calhoun gets the job done.
As horrible as the case is and as terrible as these suspects are, viewers can find hope and pride in the fact that there’s also people like Chase Calhoun, who waded into that darkness and never batted an eye. “Cover Story” is a memorable episode for its various surprising twists that make it much more dramatic than a typical murder investigation, and how many layers there are within it. It becomes one of The First 48‘s best for how it shows both the worst of humanity and the best of it, too. The world needs more heroes, and The First 48 has given audiences plenty of them.
The First 48 airs Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. on A&E. Photo Credits: Screenshots/Courtesy of A&E.
