The man accused of stabbing Dr. David Brian Stidham to death last year showed up in court with a black eye Monday afternoon, and his attorney wondered if his co-defendant, Dr. Bradley Schwartz, was behind it.
Ronald Bruce Bigger and Schwartz were in Pima County Superior Court so their lawyers could discuss a variety of motions, but the first question Judge Nanette Warner asked was what happened to Bigger's noticeably blackened left eye.
"Someone at the jail jumped him, and given our defense, I'm very concerned about it," said Bigger's attorney, Jill Thorpe.
Schwartz and Bigger, both 40, are scheduled to go to trial on Feb. 28 in connection with Stidham's October 2004 death.
Prosecutors say Schwartz hired Bigger to kill Stidham, 37, because he blamed Stidham for a December 2001 police raid on his medical practice, a subsequent federal drug indictment and the temporary loss of his medical license and livelihood.
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It was revealed last week that Bigger's defense at trial will be the allegation that Schwartz committed the murder and framed Bigger for it.
Schwartz maintains he is innocent and that a third party killed Stidham.
During a break in the hearing, Thorpe said Bigger was in a day room at the jail when another inmate attacked him. An investigation into the incident has been launched, and both men are now in special segregated cells.
"Yes, Dr. Schwartz could be behind it," Thorpe said. "My concern is that Dr. Schwartz has already tried to set someone else up for the murder."
Thorpe was referring to the fact that prosecutors have contended in court documents that they have evidence Schwartz tried to frame convicted armed robber Dennis Duane Walsh for Stidham's death by trying to pay another inmate, Carroll Carson Sanders, to say his son heard Walsh confess to the slaying.
Schwartz's attorney, Brick Storts, said his client "absolutely" did not have anything to do with the attack on Bigger.
Schwartz is in a different building at the jail complex and has no reason to want Bigger hurt, Storts said. "He didn't notice" the eye until the judge pointed it out, Storts said.
Thorpe told Warner that Bigger's writing utensils and paper had been taken away as part of his punishment. That, she said, poses a problem because he needs to be able to submit questions to her for upcoming witness interviews.
Warner called jail officials and ordered them to give Bigger a pencil and paper for a two-hour period today.
In other matters, Warner denied a defense motion to sequester jurors during the upcoming trial.
Storts had asked for jurors to be sequestered for fear that they might be influenced by media coverage of the case. Thorpe joined in the motion, saying she worried jurors would hear or read about evidence that had been excluded from the trial or about discussions held outside the jurors' presence.
Prosecutor Sylvia Lafferty objected to the motion, saying most jurors can be trusted to listen to a judge's admonishment not to watch, listen or read media coverage.
Jurors weren't sequestered in the Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson or Robert Blake trials — trials that garnered much more attention and were held in the Los Angeles area, Lafferty pointed out.
"It's a little much to say that jurors can't go home and behave themselves," Lafferty said.
