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Coroners Inquest Bahamas: Daniel Wayne Smith - Late Son Of Former Playboy Playmate And Guess Model Anna Nicole Smith (Deceased) - Jury's Unanimous That Daniel Died As A Result Of A "non-dependent use of drugs."
Related to country: Bahamas

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By TOSHEENA ROBINSON-BLAIR -
Nassau, Bahamas:


After months of testimony, the jury in the inquest into the death of Daniel Smith, the son of the late former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith, on Monday handed down its verdict – one that essentially found his death to be accidental.

The jury delivered a unanimous decision that Daniel died as a result of a "non-dependent use of drugs."

Essentially, that means he was not addicted to the drugs he consumed and did not expect to die from them.

It was not the verdict that the attorney representing Daniel’s family had hoped for.

"We don’t think it makes any sense," said Neil McCabe, the U.S. attorney representing Daniel’s grandmother Virgie Arthur and his father, Billy Smith.

"The boy was not a drug user. The judge said so. Why he would all of a sudden take a massive overdose of methadone in an abusive manner doesn’t make any sense. We don’t agree with the verdict. We think it is contrary to the evidence and unfortunately the jury was not given the option of coming back with the verdict that we believe would be the correct one which is a homicide."

Daniel died at Doctors Hospital in September 2006 while visiting his mother who had just given birth to a baby girl.

An autopsy found the likely cause of Daniel’s death was a combination of eight different drugs – a mixture of stimulants and depressants.

The court had heard that the most lethal of the eight would have been the painkiller methadone.

More than 30 witnesses were called in this matter since it began last November. The witnesses included medical professionals, police officers, and friends of Ms. Smith and her son.

The court has heard that the drug overdose was likely intentional because it was such a large volume ingested in a short space of time.

Shortly after 10am Monday, Magistrate William Campbell told the jurors that they could either deliver three verdicts – non-dependent use of drugs, accident and misadventure or an open verdict.

The accident and misadventure verdict means that the drug overdose was an unintended result of an intentional act.

The open verdict was the verdict Magistrate Campbell told the jurors to come back with if they couldn’t reach a decision.

The case was handed over to the jurors around 11am. They were given an hour to deliberate.

They broke deliberation once in that hour to ask a question. The jury came back with its verdict shortly after noon.

When asked if he was expecting further litigation in the states, Howard K. Stern, Ms. Smith’s attorney and companion said, "I have had no control over them," gesturing to Ms. Arthur and her attorney.

During the inquest, the court heard that about 26 tablets were found in Daniel’s suitcase and two pills were found in a hospital bed that nurses claimed was occupied Mr. Stern.

However, on the witness stand Mr. Stern told the court that Daniel first occupied the bed where a methadone pill and a muscle relaxant pill were found.

During the court proceedings, Mr. Stern’s attorney, Wayne Munroe, painted Smith as a young man who suffered from serious depression and back pains, and had recently broken up with his girlfriend.

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."

When he testified, Mr. Stern disputed testimony given by Ford Shelley (G. Ben Thompson’s son-in-law) that he flushed pills allegedly found later in Daniel’s jeans pocket.

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

Corroborating Mr. Shelley’s testimony, Mr. 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 with Ms Smith, are embroiled in a legal dispute with her estate over the ownership of the Eastern Road house known as "Horizons" where the former model lived while in The Bahamas.


April 1, 2008

April 1, 2008 | 6:34 PM Comments  0 comments

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