All in all an entertaining Columbo episode, but the ending is seriously flawed. Columbo proves that someone else than the victim had tied his shoe laces and dressed him up in his gym clothes, and goes on to accuse Janus of being that someone else, supposedly by his own admission because he had made a signed statement earlier that the victim was in his gym clothes.
But early in the episode, when he first meets Columbo and learns of the death of the victim, he specifically says to him that Stafford, the victim, had talked to him on the night of his death from the gym, and told him that he had changed into his gym clothes and was about to work out.
So, Janus could argue in court that the victim had told him on the phone that he had changed into his gym clothes, and nobody could disprove that since nobody else heard the conversation, and the victim is dead and cannot dispute that fact.
So, even though Janus had good reasons to kill the victim, and that Columbo has figured out exactly how he did it, it's all only circumstantial evidence against him, and nothing more. Janus is right when he says that the only thing Columbo has proved is that someone else was at the gym with the victim when he was killed, but it could have been anybody.
But early in the episode, when he first meets Columbo and learns of the death of the victim, he specifically says to him that Stafford, the victim, had talked to him on the night of his death from the gym, and told him that he had changed into his gym clothes and was about to work out.
So, Janus could argue in court that the victim had told him on the phone that he had changed into his gym clothes, and nobody could disprove that since nobody else heard the conversation, and the victim is dead and cannot dispute that fact.
So, even though Janus had good reasons to kill the victim, and that Columbo has figured out exactly how he did it, it's all only circumstantial evidence against him, and nothing more. Janus is right when he says that the only thing Columbo has proved is that someone else was at the gym with the victim when he was killed, but it could have been anybody.