From the start, Larry Birkhead noticed that Anna Nicole Smith's medicine cabinet was pretty full—and not with cosmetics, face cream and hairspray.
Testifying for the prosecution in the prescription-drug case against Howard K. Stern and two of the late model's doctors, Birkhead said Thursday that, as far as he could tell, meds played a prominent role in Smith's life during the time they were romantically involved.
Birkhead, the father of Smith's daughter Dannielynn, said that he saw methadone, Topamax, Vicadin, Ambien, Valium, Chlonopin and other drugs at Smith's L.A.-area home once the two moved in together in 2005.
Smith never wanted to discuss it when he expressed his concerns, Birkhead said, recalling, "She would say, 'I am in pain. I am not a drug addict, I have a high tolerance.'"
Birkhead also told the court that he butted heads with Stern almost immediately with regard to Anna's health.
At one point, he said, he tried to hide a bottle of methadone from his girlfriend, and Stern told him that Smith "needed the methadone to live."
After that, he never hid her drugs again, saying he "didn't want anything to happen to her after [Stern] said she needed it to live."
Birkhead only took the stand in the late afternoon and his testimony is expected to resume tomorrow morning.
Stern, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to unlawfully provide drugs for Smith, prescribing to an addict and obtaining false prescriptions involving the use of fake names, felony charges that could land each one in prison for five years.
Earlier today, Stern's sister, Bonnie, said on the stand that she can't remember whether emails between her and Smith, in which she requested that she send meds from the States to the Bahamas, ever resulted in her actually sending anything.
In one email, Bonnie wrote that she "gave Khris everything," referring to Eroshevich, after obtaining the meds in Beverly Hills.
Bonnie, who was granted immunity in return for being a prosecution witness, testified that she doesn't remember whether she gave Eroshevich a package, saying she was preoccupied during the time in question by two businesses she was running.
Smith also wrote in an email to Bonnie in late 2006, after Stern had claimed to be Dannielynn's father and Birkhead had sued for paternity, that she was hurting and Stern "doesn't seem to care."
"I'm so angry all the time, so sad and mad what can I do," she wrote, per the letter in evidence. "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."
But on cross-examination, Bonnie told Stern's attorney that Smith was her brother's "everything."
"I only wish I would meet someone that loved me as much as he loved her," she said.
—Reporting by Claudia Rosenbaum
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Did you see the stuff up for sale at the Anna Nicole Smith Estate Auction?