A Florida court this week found the wife of a prominent doctor responsible for his murder a decade ago and ordered her to pay his children $200 million.
Rebecca Schwartz, 64, was never charged with kidney specialist Dr. Steven Schwartz’s murder after he was found dead with two gunshot wounds in his Tarpon Springs mansion in May 2014, according to WTVT. She did call police, saying there had been a burglary and she found him shot to death.
The 74-year-old Schwartz’s three adult children sued their stepmother for wrongful death, and this month she was found to have “unlawfully and intentionally killed, or participated in procuring the death.”
The children’s attorney, Wil Florin, presented evidence in court that Reecca Schwartz had been embezzling money from her wealthy husband for years to give to her own children and start a marijuana grow business with her Albanian handyman. The doctor found out and threatened divorce. Then, Florin said, he learned of another embezzlement, this one to buy a cell phone store in Wisconsin for one of her children.
“And as he left for work at the hospital to do his rounds, he was going down the stairs and according to the forensic evidence, shot twice in the head,” he said.
The handyman later pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact and was deported back to Albania. Police found his DNA on the doctor’s shirt and said his cell phone records didn’t match his alibi. Florin said the handyman “was sent to the scene to clean up the mess, take the hard drive of the surveillance system, take a butcher knife and try to retrieve the bullets.”
Florin said Schwartz’s children were pleased with the civil court verdict but will likely collect less than ten percent of the award.
Rebecca Schwartz’s attorney has not responded to a request for comment.
