AJ Flick - Toxic Rage: A Tale Of Murder In Tucson

TOXIC RAGE

A Tale of Murder in Tucson

A.J. Flick

WildBluePress.com

TOXIC RAGE published by:

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Copyright 2018 by A.J. Flick

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TOXIC RAGE

Introduction

Oct. 5, 2004, became a day I will never forget for two big reasons.

It was a Tuesday, and it began much like many other workdays for me. I had been with the now defunct Tucson Citizen since October 1993 and was the reporter assigned to cover the courts. Most mornings I spent at Pima County Superior Court sitting in on trials, hearings, sentencings andmy favorite partcombing through court files. On that particular Tuesday, after spending the morning at Superior Court, I decided to take a side trip on my way back to the newspaper by visiting Pima County Juvenile Court to look up some records.

So it was about a quarter past 2 when I finally headed south on Park Avenue on my way to the paper. About a block away from the newspaper plant, a car pulled out in front of mine, and we collided.

It took just a couple of minutes for police to arrive, since there was a substation two blocks away. Nobody was seriously hurt, although the other driver, a young woman (driving without insurance and having caused a similar accident months earlier) was so hysterical that officers called for an ambulance. I went back to the paper to write a couple of stories. Afterward, I called a couple of friends and told them what happened. They proposed meeting at a sports bar at North First Avenue and East Prince Road that was our favorite hangout. A cold beer never sounded so good to me.

It was about 6:30 p.m. when I arrived. Over the course of the next several hours, more friends came in as they heard about my accident. I dont think I bought one drink that night. I know my friends sure made me feel better about being in my first car crash. We stayed until midnight or so, and then my friend drove me home, heading up North First Avenue a few blocks. We saw some big spotlights up ahead but assumed it was nighttime construction or perhaps an accident. We dismissed the sight as we turned east to the apartment complex where I lived at the time. Itd been an eventful day, and I was glad to call it a night.

The next day, one of the biggest crime stories of recent years broke loose. Around 10:30 the night before, a young doctor was found slain at a medical complex on North First Avenue just south of River Road. This was about a mile from where I was the previous night. Wow. That was kind of spooky. And it explained the spotlights, because the cops would have used them to investigate the scene. But who hasnt heard about something bad happening when you can say, Oh my gosh! I was just there (fill in the time lapse) before that happened!

At that point, I didnt have anything to do with covering the murder of Dr. David Brian Stidham. It was still a story being followed by our cop beat reporters. However, Ilike most Tucsonansfollowed the updates over the next two weeks with great interest. I was not only interested because I knew this would be a big story that I would be following once a suspect was arrested and indicted, but because it was so unusual for someone of Dr. Stidhams station and character to be killed. Ten days after Dr. Stidhams death, two suspects were arrested. The suspects identities were a shock, especially since another doctor, Brad Schwartz, was one of the suspects. Shortly after the arrests, the Citizen s then city editor, Ann Eve Pedersen, suggested that I start compiling any background information I could find on Dr. Stidham, Dr. Schwartz and the alleged killer, Bruce Bigger. She proposed a magazine-style article that took the three lives up to the point where their paths merged, which turned out to be one of my favorite articles and a popular read.

Over the next three years, the Stidham murder case became the primary focus of my beat. It wasnt the biggest murder case I had ever coveredthat distinction came to me in the spring of my senior year in high school, believe it or not, and has yet to be eclipsed. It was a case in which I sawfor the first timehow emotion and politics irreparably warp the criminal justice system. In the summer of 1978, three Casa Grande brothers broke their father, Gary Tison, and another inmate, Randy Greenawalt, out of the Florence state prison. Over a two-week span, Gary Tison and Greenawalt killed a young Yuma family and Colorado newlyweds. The state launched its biggest manhunt to date, ending in a roadblock shootout in which the oldest brother was killed and his father escaped, later to be found dead in the desert. The surviving brothers and Greenawalt were tried in Yuma, which I covered for the TV station I worked for. They were each sentenced to death. Greenawalt was eventually executed. The brothers were resentenced to life years after the publicity died down and two judges from another county weighed what the brothers actually did compared to what they were accused of. Even then, one of the judges said the only thing holding the brothers in prison was politics.

The Tison case taught me that there is always another side to the storyeven if most people dont want to see it. Would the Stidham murder case fall victim to the frailties of the American criminal justice system? We would see.

Even today, you cant talk to too many people in Tucson before you find someone who had known either Brian Stidham, Brad Schwartz or both. Many Tucson parents had taken their children to either or both doctors. Their stories run the gamut between revelation and revilement.

Dr. Schwartz saved my childs eyesight! a bowling alley employee told me one Sunday when she heard I was writing this book. Hes a great man!

Many of my co-workers had meet Schwartz. One couple came away with bad feelings when Schwartz told them their child needed surgery. There are only two who can save your child: God and me, Schwartz told them. And Gods busy. Another co-worker said she never got any negative vibes from Schwartz. He was extremely professional when she took her children there, she said. And, though this woman is attractive, he never came on to her, contrary to the womanizing behavior otherwise reported.

Brad Schwartz has never granted any interviews. After he was sent to prison, though, he did answer letters from me, always stressing his innocence, questioning the integrity of the judge and the prosecutors, wondering why no one bothered to investigate whether the victims widow who seemed to know about his murder before she was told about it or a career criminal committing armed robberies and carjackings in the same area where Dr. Stidham was killed could have been involved in the murder.

Schwartz has many explanations for things that came up during the trial. A huge knife that a woman claimed to have seen on the alleged hit mans bike was a BBQ set. When he spoke to a man about getting something taken care of, it was referring to his offer to examine the mans children. Most often, he blames the victims widow for Brian Stidhams death.