Larry Birkhead, father of Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter, testifies about Smith’s drug use

Birkhead testifies on Anna Nicole Smith’s drug use

LOS ANGELES — Larry Birkhead, the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter, has testified he saw Smith taking numerous prescription drugs but says she told him she was not an addict.

Birkhead told jurors Thursday how his love affair with the former Playboy model began when he photographed her.

He says he later moved in with her and saw her taking numerous medications.

Birkhead says he was so concerned he once hid her Methadone only to be scolded by Howard K. Stern, who told him she couldn’t live without it.

Stern, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to unlawfully provide excessive drugs to Smith and other related charges.

They are not charged with causing her death from an overdose in 2007.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The sister of Anna Nicole Smith’s lawyer-boyfriend testified at his drug conspiracy case trial Thursday, professing a lack of memory of shipments of prescription medications to him in the Bahamas.

Bonnie Stern, testifying under a grant of immunity from prosecution, identified e-mails between herself and Smith, who was requesting the shipments. But she said she couldn’t remember having the items sent to Smith or her brother, Howard K. Stern.

In one e-mail, she wrote she “gave Chris everything” from a doctor in Beverly Hills to bring to Smith. She acknowledged the reference was to defendant Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, but said she didn’t remember giving the doctor anything, mostly because she was overwhelmed at the time by two businesses she was overseeing.

Howard K. Stern, Eroshevich and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to unlawfully provide excessive drugs to Smith, prescribing to an addict and obtaining false prescriptions involving the use of fake names. They are not charged with causing her overdose death in 2007.

When Howard K. Stern’s lawyer, Steve Sadow, took over questioning, the subject switched to the personal relationship between his client and Smith.

“Did you believe your brother was in love with Anna Nicole Smith?” Sadow asked Bonnie Stern.

Prosecutors objected but the judge allowed the answer.

“She was his everything,” she said. “I only wish I would meet someone that loved me as much as he loved her.”

However, e-mails admitted into evidence revealed tensions between Smith and Howard K. Stern. The e-mails from late 2006 were written just after Smith’s son died and Smith gave birth to her daughter, Dannielynn.

“I hurt so much and it seems Howard don’t care,” Smith wrote. “I’m so angry all the time, so sad and mad what can I do. I don’t want baby Lynn to see me so upset. I feel that Howard hates me. All he does is raise his voice and back talk me.”

She said she felt a need to get away from the Bahamas but couldn’t leave “because of our situation.”

Bonnie Stern said there was a paternity suit involving Dannielynn at the time and a court case over ownership of the house where Smith was living in the Bahamas. Smith told her in e-mails to come and visit “your niece,” indicating she believed the father was Stern.

After Smith died, a court found that photographer Larry Birkhead was the father. Birkhead was at the courthouse Thursday ahead of his expected testimony.