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Coroners Inquest Bahamas: California attorney Howard K. Stern disputed testimony given by South Carolina developer Ford Shelley that he flushed pills allegedly found in Daniel’s jeans pocket after he had died
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Stern Testifies In Smith Inquest -
By TOSHEENA ROBINSON-BLAIR:
Nassau, Bahamas -



A close friend of the former US reality TV star the late Anna Nicole Smith not only recounted the final hours of the celebrity’s 20-year-old son’s life while on the witness stand Tuesday, but also refuted previous testimony that he possibly got rid of evidence.

California attorney Howard K. Stern was the last witness to take the stand in the Coroner’s Inquest that began in November, but was delayed while the court tried to secure testimony from American witnesses – who are not compelled to come to The Bahamas to give evidence in the matter.

On the witness stand Tuesday, Mr. Stern described the young man as a good person, even though his mother sent him to live with caretaker Raymond Martino after friction between the two reportedly developed in May 2006.

"I had a lot of love for Daniel," said the attorney, who told the court that he knew the young man since 1997.

"I thought he was looking for freedom, a little more independence. I myself went through the same thing with my parents."

Mr. Stern told the court that he had never seen Daniel use any type of illicit drugs.

"I didn’t believe Daniel had died of a drug overdose at all. Even after the toxicology report came back I thought that it was some kind of set-up…He wasn’t that kind of kid."

An autopsy concluded that Daniel Smith died on September 10, 2006 from a lethal combination of drugs – the most lethal being the powerful pain killer methadone.

Mr. Stern said when he picked Daniel up from the airport the night of September 9 he appeared to be in a good mood.

"He kept saying, ‘I can’t believe I have a baby sister. I can’t believe it’," the witness recalled.

However, he noted that the young man was paler and thinner than usual having spent a week in July in the Intensive Care Unit at a hospital in Burbank, California for severe back pain and depression over his break-up with his girlfriend, Maya.

Mr. Stern also told the court that it was Daniel who first occupied the hospital room bed where nurse Nadine Carey previously testified that she found two, small, white pills.

Smith died at Doctors Hospital three days after his mother gave birth to her second child, Dannielynn.

Mr. Stern told the court Tuesday that even after doctors called off their resuscitation efforts on Daniel, his mother still attempted to do chest compressions and asked Mr. Stern for assistance with ventilation.

"Anna screamed, ‘No. No.’ She didn’t accept that Daniel had died. She was screaming (that) she didn’t want to trade out children," the witness recounted.

"She was just devastated. There is no way I could describe how I felt…Anna was inconsolable. She was wearing a cross necklace. She actually pulled it off her neck and threw it against the wall."

He admitted to taking one picture of Ms. Smith cradling her dead son.

Mr. Stern said he took the photograph because Anna asked him to do it.

On the witness stand last month, South Carolina real estate developer G. Ben Thompson said he witnessed Mr. Stern take three to four pictures of the deceased because "they might be worth some money one day."

However, Mr. Stern disputed testimony given by South Carolina developer Ford Shelley that he flushed pills allegedly found in Daniel’s jeans pocket after he had died.

Mr. Thompson’s son, Ben, testified that he and his brother-in-law, Mr. Shelley, witnessed Mr. Stern get rid of the two pills.

The younger Thompson said Mr. Stern told them in getting rid of the pills he "took care of a problem."

Mr. Stern said that entire incident simply never happen.

The Thompsons, once close friends of Ms. Smith, are embroiled in a legal dispute with her estate over the ownership of the Eastern Road Horizons house where the former model lived while in The Bahamas.

Mr. Stern said he never saw Ms. Smith give her son drugs and he knew nothing about Daniel taking a bottle of methadone from his mother as alleged by Dannielynn’s father Larry Birkhead in court Monday.

He also denied Mr. Birkhead’s testimony that Ms. Smith was hospitalized in April 2006 in order to kick her methadone addiction. Mr. Stern said he took her to the hospital because she suffered from migraines.

The attorney said the only thing Mr. Smith had in her duffle bag were clothes and personal items and not a bottle of methadone as alleged by Mr. Birkhead.

The inquest resumes Thursday with brief final submissions from the attorneys involved and the summing up of the case by Magistrate William Campbell before the case is handed over to the jury for a decision.

March 19, 2008

March 19, 2008 | 6:13 PM Comments  0 comments

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