Jury Awards $200 Million to Children of Slain Tampa-Area Doctor in Civil Murder Case Against His Wife
After trial: The judgment is against an individual defendant; collection is doubtful.
Won by Florin Roebig.
A Pinellas County civil jury found Rebecca Schwartz liable for the 2014 murder of her husband, kidney specialist Dr. Steven Schwartz, and awarded his three children $200 million in one of the largest wrongful death verdicts in Florida history.
What happened
On the morning of May 28, 2014, Dr. Steven Schwartz, a 74-year-old kidney specialist practicing in Dunedin, Florida, was found shot, stabbed, and strangled in the garage of his Tarpon Springs mansion. His wife, Rebecca Schwartz, called 911 to report a break-in. Investigators found no signs of forced entry and removed components of the home security system for analysis. The Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office opened a homicide investigation that remained active for years without producing criminal charges against Rebecca Schwartz.
Dr. Schwartz's three adult children filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit in 2016 naming Rebecca Schwartz as responsible for their father's death. The case centered on evidence that she had embezzled money from her husband for years, funneling funds to her own children and to an Albanian handyman, Anton Leo Stragaj, with whom she financed a marijuana grow operation. According to plaintiff's counsel, the doctor discovered the embezzlement and confronted her. A second financial scheme, this one involving the purchase of a Verizon retail store in Wisconsin using his money, allegedly supplied the final motive.
Stragaj pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact in 2021 and was deported to Albania following an eight-year sentence. His DNA was found on Dr. Schwartz's shirt. Attorneys for the children presented the jury with cellphone records that contradicted his account of his whereabouts that morning.
Florin Roebig attorneys Wil Florin, Tommy Roebig, Shaun Cummings, and John Hart represented the three children through trial. In March 2025, the jury returned a verdict applying a Florida statute providing that a surviving person who 'unlawfully and intentionally kills or participates in procuring the death of the decedent is not entitled to any benefits under the will.' The jury found Rebecca Schwartz liable and awarded approximately $199 million in damages.
Attorney Wil Florin told reporters the family was pleased with the result but acknowledged that actual collection was likely to fall between $10 million and $20 million, given the limits of Rebecca Schwartz's identifiable assets. Rebecca Schwartz has not been criminally charged and the homicide investigation remained open as of the verdict date. Dateline NBC aired an episode on the case on October 31, 2025.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Fox 13 Tampa Bay: Wife of doctor found dead in Tarpon Springs mansion ordered to pay his children $200M (named Wil Florin, 2025)·Archived copy
- 2.Tampa Bay Times: Wife of Tarpon Springs doctor slain in 2014 ordered to pay $200 million (2025)·Archived copy
- 3.Yahoo News (AP wire): Wife of slain Tarpon Springs doctor ordered to pay nearly $200 million (2025)·Archived copy
- 4.Fox News: Wife of Florida doctor found dead ordered to pay $200M to his children (2025)·Archived copy
- 5.Crime Online: Wife of Prominent Doctor Ruled Responsible, Ordered to Pay $200 Million (2025)·Archived copy
- 6.Dateline Tonight·Archived copy
More proven verdicts from Florin Roebig
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A Pinellas County jury awarded Ehab Mina $7.56 million at the end of January 2018 for back, neck and shoulder injuries from a 2008 fall into a partially drained, unlit hot tub at the Boca Ciega Resort & Marina. An earlier jury had found the condominium association and its management company, Condos by Sirata, each 50 percent at fault. The damages jury covered his medical expenses and lost wages after a series of back surgeries and a shoulder operation.
Related wrongful death verdicts
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