Thursday, March 16, 2006
Schwartz trial: He wanted Stidham dead, girlfriends say
Doctors threats weren't taken seriously
A.J. FLICK
Tucson Citizen
Two women who dated Dr. Bradley Alan Schwartz testified yesterday he spoke of wanting Dr. Brian Stidham dead.
Lisa Goldberg and Liliana Bibb both said they didn't take Schwartz seriously and that he denied any role in Stidham's Oct. 5, 2004, stabbing death.
Goldberg, who dined with Schwartz on the night of the murder, said the topic of contract killings came up one evening when Schwartz told her about one of his patients who was a drug trafficker.
"The guy let him know if Brad ever needed anything, anything could be done for $10,000," said Goldberg, a Phoenix Realtor.
Prosecutors say Schwartz withdrew $10,000 from his bank account the day after the slaying and the alleged hit man, Ronald Bruce Bigger, was seen days later with a large amount of money.
Bibb said Schwartz spoke about harming Stidham during their monthlong relationship in the summer of 2004.
"He wanted to have his eyes poked out, or his fingers broken so he couldn't do surgery," Bibb said. "He said he'd be happy if he was 6 feet under."
Pima County Superior Court Judge Nanette Warner granted requests by Goldberg and Bibb not to be photographed.
Among the witnesses expected to be called today is Aisha Henry, who met Schwartz in rehab and became intimate with him, prosecutors say.
Goldberg and Bibb said they met Schwartz through Internet dating sites and that he professed his love and talked about marriage.
Bibb said he even asked if she knew a hit man he could hire.
"He wasn't answering my calls, so I told him I had somebody, then he called me back right away," Bibb said. "I told my daughter to tell him I left with that person, so then he kept calling and calling and trying to reach me."
Bibb said she really didn't know any hit men, but the relationship was "fading" and she didn't want it to end before she got $350 he had offered to give her for rent.
On one occasion, Bibb was at Schwartz's apartment when he was talking angrily to someone on the phone. Afterward, he told her he had lost $1,500 on a bad deal.
"Did he tell you something about people changing their mind, reneging on a deal?" prosecutor Sylvia Lafferty asked.
"Yes," Bibb said.
She told detectives Schwartz once drove her to the medical complex where Stidham had an office and was killed, noting that the complex was dark, had no outside cameras and that Stidham worked late at night and he would be killed in what appeared to be a robbery.
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