TUCSON, Ariz. — Prosecutors have a tight timeline for the night Dr. Brian Stidham was murdered. They have theorized to jurors about when the alleged hit man, Ronald "Bruce" Bigger, lay in wait for Stidham outside his practice, when he killed him and when he drove off in his white Lexus to abandon it.

But as lawyers for the man accused of contracting the hit on Stidham — his former boss, Dr. Bradley Schwartz — opened their case last week, they set about attacking that timeline, calling a witness whose testimony directly contradicted the prosecution's sequence of events.

An employee at the Denny's from which Bigger allegedly called Schwartz on Oct. 5, 2004, told jurors that Bigger lingered in the restaurant for a half an hour to an hour before he called for a taxi.

Phone records presented as evidence earlier in the trial show that someone made a call from that Denny's to Schwartz's cellphone at 7:46 p.m. and also from the taxi driver's cellphone at 8:19 p.m.

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When Dr. Stidham turned on his office security system at 7:26 p.m. that night as he left his practice, the system recorded it. Investigators believe the 37-year-old pediatric ophthalmologist was ambushed shortly thereafter. Stidham's lifeless body was found about three hours later sprawled in the parking lot. He had been stabbed more than 15 times and his white 1992 Lexus was missing.

Sullivan's testimony places Bigger in the Denny's at the same time prosecutors say he was lying in wait for Stidham to leave his office.

Prosecutors allege that Schwartz became obsessed with either killing or physically hurting Stidham because he believed the doctor was both stealing his patients and also informed medical authorities about his addiction to prescription pills. They alleged that Schwartz hired Bigger, a former patient, to kill Stidham and then paid him $10,000 for the murder.

Both Bigger and Schwartz are charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, although Bigger will be tried at a later date.

The timeline of the murder is key to the prosecution's case because it gives Bigger about 20 minutes to kill Stidham, steal his car, drive across town and abandon the vehicle in an apartment complex and then make the call from the Denny's phone to Schwartz.

Despite his allegedly violent encounter only minutes before arriving at the Denny's restaurant, employee Erin Sullivan told jurors that Bigger appeared calm when she observed him. On cross-examination, however, she conceded that she could not say for certain on which day she saw him, only that it was in October 2004.

Another defense witness, Zhanna Chernobelski, told jurors that when she returned home to her family's apartment between 2:00 and 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 5, 2004, she found a white Lexus parked in her personal spot. The car was eventually identified as Stidham's two days later, and investigators found his blood all over the interior.

Although one of Stidham's employees testified previously that she saw the doctor's car in the office parking lot as late as 5 p.m., Chernobelski's testimony calls into question when exactly the doctor's car went missing.

Parents defend their son

Schwartz's mother and father testified about a one-month period in 2002 in which they came to Tucson to help out with their son's practice while he was in rehab for his prescription pill addiction.

Lois Schwartz said that while she was in Tucson, she discovered Stidham was handing out business cards for a new practice he was forming. The doctor, Mrs. Schwartz said, also was soliciting Schwartz's employees to join him.

She immediately called her son at the rehab facility where he was living and urged him to fire Stidham.

"I felt it was unethical," she explained.

Schwartz eventually fired Stidham while on a conference call from the rehab facility while Stidham, his two parents and other employees were present.

Mrs. Schwartz said that, despite the firing, the relationship between the two doctors was professional both before and after the incident.

"He wanted to make Dr. Stidham a full partner, there was no animosity," she said.

While Schwartz showed little emotion during the prosecution's case, he appeared more animated as his lawyers began his defense. He took extensive notes and appeared to smile while his parents were on the stand.

On Friday, a forensic accountant told jurors that Schwartz's financial situation was picking up at the time Stidham was murdered and that the defendant could expect to earn up to $300,000 in 2005.

Schwartz's lawyers contend their client was not bitter toward Stidham, but was instead focused on rebuilding his practice to the level it had reached before his drug problems.

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