Wife of Murdered Doctor Must Pay Stepkids $200M

The spouse of a doctor found murdered in his Florida mansion more than a decade ago will have to open her wallet for the deceased physician's adult kids. WFLA reports that Rebecca Schwartz, 64, was ordered earlier this month by a civil court to pay her three stepchildren nearly $200 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit against her, after the jury in the case found she'd "unlawfully and intentionally killed, or participated in procuring the death" of 74-year-old Steven Schwartz.

Steven Schwartz was found slain in the garage of his Tarpon Springs home in May 2014. Per the Tampa Bay Times, he'd been shot twice in the head and had his throat slashed. FOX 13 reports it was Rebecca Schwartz who called 911 and said she'd found his body, suspecting a burglary. No one was ever formally charged in the murder, but Anton Stragaj, a handyman who worked for the family, pleaded guilty to one count of accessory after the fact, though he denied killing the doctor and instead accused Rebecca Schwartz of the crime.

Stragaj was released from prison in 2022 after eight years behind bars and was deported to his home country of Albania. Meanwhile, Steven Schwartz's kids filed their complaint against their stepmother in 2016, accusing her and Stragaj of conspiring together to kill their father. Attorney Wil Florin, who's representing the stepchildren, says Rebecca Schwartz embezzled money from her spouse, giving some of it to her own kids and using some to start "a marijuana grow house with the handyman," per FOX 13. That handyman was Stragaj, whose DNA detectives say was found on Steven Schwartz's shirt; Stragaj's cellphone records also reportedly didn't match his alibi.

story continues below

Florin says that Steven Schwartz had known what she was doing and that the "last straw" came when he learned she had bought a Verizon Wireless store for one of her own sons. He threatened divorce and was killed days later; the attorney says it was Rebecca Schwartz who pulled the trigger. Florin expects Steven Schwartz's children will collect a fraction of the $200 million. "I don't expect that there's $200 million out there to get," he said. "But I think there's tens of millions out there. I really do." No criminal charges have been filed against Rebecca Schwartz; the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office says the homicide investigation continues. (Much more here.)