Anna Nicole: Enough Evidence for Trial?
The final days of the life of Anna Nicole Smith have been described in a Los Angeles courtroom as being marked by illness and confusion.
The testimony Tuesday has come in a preliminary hearing of charges against Smith's former lawyer-boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, and two doctors who are accused of conspiring to supply controlled substances to the celebrity model.
Stern, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor and Dr. Khristina Eroshevich have pleaded not guilty.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert Perry will determine at the end of the hearing whether there is enough evidence to proceed to trial.
Photos: Anna Nicole Smith's Life and Career
A California Department of Justice narcotics investigator was called as the first witness to testify about what was found in the Florida hotel room where Smith collapsed before her death on Feb. 8, 2007.
Danny Santiago, a supervisory special agent in narcotics enforcement, said there were 11 containers with 10 types of drugs.
Smith's autopsy concluded she died of "acute combined drug intoxication" and the drugs involved were chloral hydrate combined with Benadryl, clonazepam, diazepam and lorazepam.
Santiago also said that Stern had to physically support Smith as they entered the Florida hotel where she suffered her fatal drug overdose in 2007.
Santiago said Stern was giving Smith the children's electrolyte formula Pedialyte in a baby bottle and at one point she was so confused she began asking where her baby was.
The baby, Dannielynn, had remained in the Bahamas during the trip to Florida.
Stern's attorney, Steve Sadow, has said he has not decided whether to call defense witnesses at the hearing.
Eroshevich's attorney, Adam Braun, said he is unlikely to call witnesses of his own during the hearing, saving his client's defense for the trial. Kapoor's attorney, Ellyn Garafolo, has taken a similar position.
Prosecutors claim Stern aided and abetted the two doctors and allege that he obtained prescriptions for Smith under false names.
Search warrant affidavits suggest Stern put his name on prescriptions for opiates that were given to Smith, and claim 44 different medications were prescribed for Smith under a number of other names, including Stern's.
Stern is named in all 11 counts of the complaint. The doctors each face six counts, including conspiracy, and if convicted could be sentenced to as much as five years, eight months in prison. It was not clear what sentence Stern might face if convicted.
Smith died in the midst of a long legal battle to collect millions of dollars from the estate of her late husband, J. Howard Marshall II, owner of Great Northern Oil Co. Smith was 26 when she wed the 89-year-old tycoon. They met while she was a topless dancer at a Texas strip club.
That battle is unresolved. The estate ultimately may go to Smith's daughter, now 3.
AP Entertainment Writer Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.
By Linda Deutsch