TUCSON, Ariz. — The judge's robe was exchanged for a black overcoat; a sheriff's department floodlight cast long shadows over the ghostly chalk outlines of Dr. Brian Stidham's body; jurors wandered around to see where his blood fell; and a court reporter sat in a chair in the parking lot taking notes on a cool, windy desert night.

It had to be, if not the strangest, then the eeriest official court proceeding in southern Arizona.

After extensive discussions between the judge and attorneys, jurors in the first degree-murder trial of Dr. Bradley Schwartz were visiting the medical plaza where Stidham was stabbed to death on the night of Oct. 5, 2004.

Prosecutors requested the visit as part of their case against Schwartz, who is accused of hiring Ronald "Bruce" Bigger, a patient and small-time criminal, to kill Stidham and to make the slaying look like a robbery or carjacking.

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The premise of the visit was to make the parking lot resemble as closely as possible the crime scene as it was on the night Stidham's body was discovered by a masseuse returning to her office with her fiancé to retrieve her forgotten engagement ring.

Sheriff's deputies guarded the perimeter of the recreated crime scene and investigators worked through the day to make sure the measurements between the outline of Stidham's body in the middle of the parking lot and the nearby blood droplets were the same as they were almost 18 months ago.

The court even consulted the cycles of the moon to ensure that the light was similar to the night of the slaying.

Jurors viewed a chalk outline of Dr. Brian Stidham's body.

Lead investigator Det. Jill Murphy led jurors through the crime scene as lawyers from both sides watched her and the jurors' reactions closely. When the macabre tour was finished, jurors were allowed to ask questions of Murphy after Judge Nannette Warner huddled with attorneys to make sure the inquiries were appropriate.

One question, about the placement of Stidham's car at the time of the murder, brought about what must have been a rare outdoor objection, from Schwartz's attorney Brick Storts.

Stidham's 1992 Lexus was found miles from the original crime scene, and investigators have theories about where it was parked that night.

Warner sustained the objection.

Jurors took voluminous notes and even stooped to inspect the exhibits during the few minutes they were allowed to freely roam the crime scene. Almost all of the jurors looked down at the blown-up photos of Stidham's lifeless body, still in his medical scrubs, sprawled in the middle of the parking lot.

Rage at temple

The visit succeeded another eventful day in the actual courtroom.

Judge Warner declined the defense's motion for mistrial. Storts made the motion Tuesday after Lourdes Lopez, Schwartz's onetime fiancée, testified about her indictment on federal drug charges.

Both Lopez and Schwartz were named on the same indictment, and Warner ruled previously that the jury could not hear about Schwartz's drug charges. Because Lopez only mentioned her indictment, Warner allowed the case to proceed.

With her designer purse perched to her left on the witness stand, Lopez told of Schwartz's angry obsession with Stidham, the man he had brought in from Texas to work at his eye clinic.

Lopez said Schwartz felt betrayed when Stidham left to start his own practice across town at a moment when Schwartz himself could not see patients because of the federal indictment and several visits to rehab for his addiction to prescription pills.

"Brad was upset because Dr. Stidham left him when he needed him the most," Lopez told jurors. "Brad had told me that he wanted Dr. Stidham to die."

In what has become a familiar refrain from Schwartz's numerous former lovers, Lopez said the defendant spoke constantly about hurting and killing his perceived rival.

That obsession continued even when Lopez and Schwartz were in temple listening to a rabbi speak about atonement and forgiveness.

Lopez, who was converting to Judaism for Schwartz while the two were engaged, said the rabbi's talk moved her and seemed to apply to her future husband's situation.

"That's exactly the kind of way we need to live," Lopez remembered telling the defendant as the two left the service. "The anger you have for Dr. Stidham, you have to let it go."

But her future husband wouldn't relent.

"Brad responded, 'F--- that ... that f---ing guy is going to die,'" Lopez said.

Schwartz's ex-wife is set to testify Friday and the prosecution is expected to wrap up its case against the 41-year-old doctor by the middle of next week.

Court TV Extra is streaming the trial live on the Web.