The Arizona Court of Appeals has affirmed the May 2007 conviction of Ronald Bruce Bigger in the murder of Tucson eye doctor Brian Stidham.
Bigger's appellate attorneys tried to get Bigger's conviction and life sentence overturned on a variety of issues.
They said retired Judge Nanette Warner erred when she wouldn't let Jill Thorpe and Harold Higgins present evidence about another suspect.Â
They also said Judge Warner should've moved Bigger's trial out of Pima County and she should've made a different ruling on a DNA-related issue.
The appellate court judges said Bigger didn't prove pre-trial publicity caused actual prejudice. They also said Judge Warner was right to preclude anything about the other suspect because it just would've confused the jury. They said the defense attorneys had no evidence showing a witness who saw the other suspect cleaning and disposing of a knife months before the slaying was wrong about the timing.
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The appellate court judges also ruled Judge Warner made the correct decision on the DNA issue, noting the attorneys had the opportunity to cross-examine the state's witnesses on the matter.
David Brian Stidham was stabbed more than a dozen times outside his office on Oct. 5, 2004.
Pinal County prosecutors Sylvia Lafferty and Richard Platt told jurors Dr. Bradley Schwartz paid Bigger $10,000 for the slaying because he was angry Stidham had abandoned their joint practice while Schwartz was in a drug-rehabilitation program.
Stidham ended up with many of Schwartz's patients after Schwartz and Schwartz's girlfriend, Lourdes Lopez, were indicted on federal drug-fraud charges in September 2002 and Schwartz's medical license was temporarily suspended.
Bigger and Schwartz were arrested shortly after Lopez went to detectives and said Schwartz had told her he wanted to hire a hit man to kill Stidham and stage the incident to look like a carjacking.
Bigger was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and first-degree murder and is serving a life sentence. Schwartz was acquitted on the first-degree murder charge, but convicted on the conspiracy charge. He, too, is serving a life sentence.
