Murder conspiracy case grabs media glare

In the Courts. By Bonnie Booth, AMNews contributor. July 10, 2006.

In prosecutor parlance, State of Arizona v. Bradley Alan Schwartz was a "heater." It's a term prosecutors use when a criminal trial has at least one of these elements: a high-profile defendant, a high-profile victim, salacious facts or a heinous or unusual criminal act.

Arizona v. Schwartz had them all.

It started when pediatric ophthalmologist Brian Stidham, MD, the father of two young children, was found murdered in the parking lot outside his Tucson, Ariz., practice on Oct. 5, 2004. He had been stabbed 15 times and his skull was fractured.

Ten days later, Bradley Schwartz, MD, also a pediatric ophthalmologist, was arrested and charged with hiring one of his patients, Ronald Bigger, to kill Dr. Stidham. Physician and patient were charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Both pleaded not guilty.

This "heater" was destined to draw attention.

When Dr. Schwartz's murder trial started in March, local media covering the trial were joined by Court TV, which provided live streaming video of the court proceedings at its Web site, and a crew from CBS's "48 Hours" that reportedly filmed gavel-to-gavel. The show is rumored to be considering an episode about the case, but show representatives said they could not comment on the rumors because the case in ongoing. Bigger is scheduled to go on trial later this year.

Experts said Dr. Schwartz and Dr. Stidham were not the typical "high profile" victim and defendant. Instead, the trial likely garnered national media attention because it is rare to have physician-on-physician crime.