The murder was brilliant, the use of ice means there's no murder weapon and the alibi so solid and it cannot be proved beyond a reasonable doubt that he wasn't in that luxury box at the game.
Where it all goes wrong is when Columbo stumbled upon Robert Culp on a suspicious public phone in the middle of Los Angeles International Airport. How this happened was completely baffling. I have a hard time finding family members I'm trying to pick up in that airport in 2020, how did Columbo just find Culp right away? This causes Columbo to suspect Culp but how did this even happen in the first place? Did he follow Culp all the way to the airport and Culp never noticed Columbo's beat up car? And how would Columbo even know to check the public phones first thing? Wouldn't the first guess be that he's picking someone up? He doesn't know about the phone taps until later. It's also bizarre that Columbo would go from chatting with Culp at the office, then following him dozens of miles to the airport on the pretense of just chatting him again.
Then we reach the end where the we find out a clock chime wasn't on the bugged phone call, supposedly proving he wasn't in his luxury box at the time of the murder. That would never prove anything in court, especially given how small the clock was and the distance from the clock to the phone, and the fact that the clock might not have hit 2:30 during the call cause not all clocks are exact. The murderer never admits guilt in this episode, it just cuts to credits. With no murder weapon, no motive and no proven means, there's no chance this could go to court. Columbo's only hope was to get a confession which he doesn't get.
Where it all goes wrong is when Columbo stumbled upon Robert Culp on a suspicious public phone in the middle of Los Angeles International Airport. How this happened was completely baffling. I have a hard time finding family members I'm trying to pick up in that airport in 2020, how did Columbo just find Culp right away? This causes Columbo to suspect Culp but how did this even happen in the first place? Did he follow Culp all the way to the airport and Culp never noticed Columbo's beat up car? And how would Columbo even know to check the public phones first thing? Wouldn't the first guess be that he's picking someone up? He doesn't know about the phone taps until later. It's also bizarre that Columbo would go from chatting with Culp at the office, then following him dozens of miles to the airport on the pretense of just chatting him again.
Then we reach the end where the we find out a clock chime wasn't on the bugged phone call, supposedly proving he wasn't in his luxury box at the time of the murder. That would never prove anything in court, especially given how small the clock was and the distance from the clock to the phone, and the fact that the clock might not have hit 2:30 during the call cause not all clocks are exact. The murderer never admits guilt in this episode, it just cuts to credits. With no murder weapon, no motive and no proven means, there's no chance this could go to court. Columbo's only hope was to get a confession which he doesn't get.