Convicted HIV-Infected Doctor Dies.

Dr. Richard J. Schmidt, a former Lafayette doctor convicted of attempted murder for injecting his former mistress with HIV-tainted blood, has died at the age of 74 while serving a 50-year sentence at Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel. Schmidt was found guilty in 1998 of injecting his former mistress, Janice Trahan, with HIV-tainted blood under the guise of giving her a B-12 vitamin injection. Schmidt unsuccessfully challenged his conviction in state and federal court, seeking appeals, relief and other forms of legal intervention in his case.