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It would be fair to say Brad Schwartz is manipulative, sneaky, violent and less than truthful, Lourdes Lopez testified yesterday in the first-degree murder trial of Ronald Bruce Bigger.

Lopez, who was once engaged to Schwartz, was called to the stand by prosecutors because she says Schwartz repeatedly told her he wanted his former business associate, Dr. David Brian Stidham, dead.

According to prosecutors, Sylvia Lafferty and Richard Platt, Schwartz hired Bigger to stab Stidham to death on Oct. 5, 2004.

Bigger's defense attorneys, however, say he has an alibi and someone else must have killed Stidham. Jill Thorpe and Harold Higgins also say that whoever killed Stidham must've really hated him to stab him 15 times.

Stidham's body was found outside his office, near First Avenue and River Road. His missing Lexus was found the next day.

Schwartz's hatred of Stidham began shortly after Schwartz, an eye surgeon, was forced into drug rehabilitation by the Arizona Medical Board, Lopez testified. Instead of maintaining Schwartz's practice while he was gone, Stidham started his own practice and Schwartz felt betrayed, Lopez said.

Over the next several months, Lopez testified, Schwartz repeatedly said Stidham needed to be humiliated, as he himself was humiliated.

Lopez, a former Pima County prosecutor, said there were many discussions about what would happen if authorities found child pornography in a doctor's office or if a doctor was accused of child molestation.

Schwartz told her he wanted Stidham dead, remarking, "It's not going to be me. It's going to be some other person and it's going to look like a carjacking or a robbery outside his office," Lopez said.

Lopez, who insisted she never thought Schwartz would carry out such a plan, said she told Schwartz that he shouldn't harbor so much hatred for someone.

In one "insane conversation," Lopez said she discussed with Schwartz the inherent dangers of hiring a drug addict as a hit man.

While she often shared with Schwartz information on evidence gathering and DNA, Lopez said they also discussed his career.

During cross-examination Thorpe suggested Schwartz was manipulative, sneaky, violent and less-than-truthful. Lopez agreed.

Not only did Schwartz repeatedly cheat on her and lie about it, but he beat her during one altercation, put a dent into her car during another incident and pushed her around on occasion, Lopez said.

Even after Schwartz was arrested in Stidham's death, he tried to manipulate her into defending him, telling her that if anyone in her family was in danger of losing their eyesight he would treat them, Lopez said.

Lopez also acknowledged telling Pima County Sheriff's Detective Jill Murphy she feared Schwartz would kill her for going to the authorities with her suspicions after the slaying.

Thorpe also asked Lopez about a number of phone calls between she and Schwartz.

Lopez said Schwartz called her around 10 the night of the slaying to discuss modifying the amount of child and spousal support he was paying to former wife Joan Schwartz. Phone records show the call lasted two minutes.

The former prosecutor said she was surprised to learn that between August 2004 and Oct. 15, 2004, she and Schwartz called each other 341 times — despite the fact they were no longer dating.

Testimony is expected to resume Tuesday before Pima County Superior Court Judge Nanette Warner.