Defense attorney Brick Storts again asked for a mistrial in the Dr. Bradley Schwartz murder trial Tuesday after a DNA expert offered an opinion that Storts said violated an earlier court ruling.
Arizona Department of Public Safety criminalist Lorraine Heath told jurors that after having looked at her data and the data of another DNA expert she "felt strongly" Ronald Bruce Bigger could not be excluded as the source of DNA found on radio knobs in murder victim Dr. David Brian Stidham's car.
Heath hadn't even completed her sentence before Storts loudly objected. Judge Nanette Warner sustained the objection.
Storts then demanded a mistrial and Warner quickly had the jury ushered out of the courtroom for the day, 30 minutes early.
Earlier Tuesday, Warner told prosecutors Heath would not be allowed to testify about how she combined her DNA analysis with criminalist Curtis Reinbold's analysis to compute random statistical probabilities.
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The judge said the way Heath performed the combined analysis is not generally accepted in the scientific community.
The ruling was a victory for the defense, because had Heath been allowed to talk about statistics, she would have said that the frequency with which the same partial DNA profile discovered on the radio knobs would be found in the general population would be 1 in 8.6 billion and Bigger's DNA is consistent with that DNA profile.
When Heath testified that she combined Reinbold's data with her own to reach a conclusion, she violated the judge's ruling, Storts complained.
Storts said he'd be filing a formal motion for a mistrial this morning — his fourth since testimony began March 7.
Prosecutor Sylvia Lafferty said she couldn't comment on Storts' complaint because she wants to see his written motion first.
The judge asked for the motion to be filed by 10 a.m. today. It's unclear when she will rule.
Schwartz, an eye surgeon, is on trial for first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Prosecutors say he hired Bigger to kill Stidham because Stidham opened his own office while Schwartz was in drug rehab and took some of Schwartz's patients and staffers with him.
Storts told jurors during opening statements that if they don't believe Bigger killed Stidham, then they have to acquit Schwartz. Bigger is scheduled to go to trial in July.
Most of Tuesday was spent discussing the DNA found in Stidham's car, which was stolen the night he was slain and found the following evening.
Heath performed Y-STR testing on blood found on Stidham's radio knobs. That involves looking at Y chromosomes, which only men have, and is often used when there is only a small quantity of DNA available.
She testified she found two sources of DNA on the radio knobs. Most of the DNA came from Stidham, but she only found a partial profile on the secondary DNA source. Based on her analysis alone, Heath said she couldn't exclude Bigger as the source of that DNA.
Earlier, Reinbold testified he conducted STR analysis of the DNA on the knobs. He, too, said the majority of the DNA came from Stidham and he couldn't exclude Bigger as the secondary source of the DNA.
Reinbold also testified under cross-examination that he didn't do any testing on the six hairs found on Stidham's body because they didn't have roots. He said although mitochondrial DNA, which doesn't require roots, could have been performed by another lab, the hairs weren't sent out for testing.
Storts asked for a mistrial last week after prosecutors used evidence from Schwartz's PalmPilot without first telling him about it and when Schwartz's former fiancee mentioned a federal indictment that wasn't supposed to be mentioned. Fellow defense attorney Maria Davila asked for a mistrial March 16 when questions about a witness meeting Schwartz at the federal courthouse potentially tipped jurors that Schwartz was once federally indicted.
Schwartz trial
