Sheldon Hawkes

Hawkes was a child prodigy who graduated from college at eighteen, and by 24 he was a fully licensed board certified surgeon. After a tumultuous surgical career in which he was often at odds with his boss and after losing two patients on the operating table (shown in flashback in episode 309, "And Here's To You, Mrs Azrael"), he abandoned surgery in favor of the medical examiner's office. He evidently sleeps at the morgue sometimes, as he has a cot there in episode 103, "American Dreamers." In season 2 he moves out of the morgue and becoming an invaluable member of the investigation team both in the lab and the field. His badge number is "9010". Due to his medical background, he is sometimes referred to as "Doc" by his colleagues. In "Blood Actually", Sheldon had a disagreement with Danny Messer regarding a heavy-set victim at a crime scene they were investigating. But later, Sheldon showed Danny a picture of himself that he was overweight and later lost the weight to impress a girl, reminding Danny that what's on the inside of a person is what really counts.

Hawkes is a sympathetic soul who is willing to lend an ear to anyone who needs to talk. During "Murder Sings the Blues" (episode 307) he is shown in flashback to have met a girl at a party. The girl felt unhappy, so Hawkes took her out for a cup of coffee and listened to her tell him her troubles. Afterwards, he gave her his phone number if she ever felt like she needed to talk to him again. The girl is found dead two weeks later on board a subway car following a rave party, with Hawkes' phone number still on her person. Hawkes, when he discovers his phone number in the girl's possession, neglects to tell Mac about his connection to her, which earns him a dressing-down from Mac in front of the entire lab. Later, Hawkes apologizes to Mac for not disclosing how he knew the victim and tells his story. Their relationship has clearly mended by episode 309 ("And Here's To You, Mrs Azrael"), when Mac confides about his father's lingering death from cancer, and Sheldon comforts him. This dialogue also indicates that Hawkes is opposed to euthanasia. On a few episodes, such as "Hammer Down", "It Happened To Me", and "Scared Stiff", Dr. Hawkes tends to get emotional when a murder is medical-related, or if the suspect happens to be a doctor. Hawkes has been the victim of racism while out in the field especially in dealings with white supremacist Micheal Elgers. In "Green Piece", Hawkes investigating the bombing of a house, is led to Elgers who is adorned with Nazi tattoos all over his body and other white power propaganda is discovered in Elgers' apartment. Elgers lays into Hawkes calling him inferior, an affirmative action case, but Hawkes stands his ground. In "Yahrzeit", Hawkes is faced with the death of his uncle and plans to fly to Michigan for the funeral, however the flight is delayed and Hawkes decides to help the team investigate the murder of an auctioneer. He offers to assist Danny Messer with Messer informing his friend that he's about to question Micheal Elgers. Hawkes defiantly states, "He's a vicious racist and that's his problem". Elgers once again targets Hawkes for being black, but like before, Hawkes maintains composure. Hawkes remains in New York long enough to see Elgers arrested for crimes unrelated to the murder before taking his flight to be with his family to honor his uncle.

In episode 512, it was revealed that an ex-girlfriend of Hawkes' was a victim of a serial rapist years ago. The aftermath of the event led their relationship to fall apart. When the rapist strikes another victim, Hawkes becomes furious and a little obsessed with finding the rapist and putting him away, leading him to clash with Mac over the methods of obtaining evidence and over Hawkes' personal connection to one of the victims. He is removed from the case as a result. The rapist is eventually caught by Stella.

In episode 522, Sheldon reminisces to Danny Messer about his just-deceased uncle Frank, who had witnessed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and whose dignified resilience to racism, and pride in his nephew, had been formative in Sheldon's life. That pride was on full display at the uncle's house when upon graduating from med school, Frank placed a sign on his house reading THIS IS THE HOME OF THE UNCLE OF DOCTOR SHELDON HAWKES.

In the episode "Hammer Down", Sheldon displays his anger while interrogating a suspect with Flack. Being a doctor who had lost all of his savings in a scheme, he berated the suspect, who is also a doctor, for using the female victims' organs and body parts for transplanting, among other things for money while Flack watches. "Hammer Down" is part of the CSI trilogy in which Dr. Raymond Langston (played by Laurence Fishburne), of the Las Vegas Crime Lab investigates the kidnapping of a young woman in Miami, who was later believed to have been taken from Las Vegas.

Hawkes is shown to be an amiable character who is well-liked by colleagues and passionate about the job. He is good friends with Danny Messer and the two are sometimes seen joking with new members of the team (new Homicide Detective Angell in season 3 "People With Money" and new CSI Detective Jo Danville in the season 7 opener). Although he has let his personal life interfere with his work on several occasions, he still maintains good working relationships with the rest of the team, especially his supervisor Mac.