A Bahamian court has ruled out foul play in Daniel Smith's sudden demise.
Magistrate William Campbell, who is overseeing the inquest into the Sept. 10, 2006, death of Anna Nicole Smith's 20-year-old son, did not list homicide as one of four options a seven-member jury will have to determine what killed Daniel.
The Nassau court official instead offered as a cause such grim but self-inflicted possibilities as "accident," "non-dependent drug use," "misadventure," and an "open verdict." The jury could employ the last option should it fail to reach a definite conclusion in the case.
The panel can also recommend criminal charges, should it find compelling evidence.
Police investigators had previously stated there was no evidence of murder. An autopsy found that Smith had died as the result of a toxic combination of methadone, antidepressants and sleeping pills, and the coroner declared his death "suspicious." That determination prompted the inquest, which had been delayed for over a year.
In any event, the magistrate's announcement Thursday should help clear any lingering suspicions around the role played by Anna Nicole Smith's attorney turned lover, Howard K. Stern, in Daniel's death.
Ever since that fateful day, the 38-year-old legal eagle has denied allegations brought by Anna Nicole's mother and rehashed in the tabloids that he may have given the youth drugs or contributed in some way to his delinquency.
Stern, who was never a suspect, testified on Tuesday that he had no knowledge of any substance abuse by Daniel.
Stern said he was too busy dealing with Smith's inheritance battle with the estate of her late husband, J. Howard Marshall II, to notice that Daniel was anything more than tired. He did admit to snapping a photo of Daniel's body in the hospital room, where he died three days after the birth of his half-sister, Dannielynn, but refuted suggestions he did so for profit, stating that Anna Nicole was in such grief she requested he did so.
The former Playmate died Feb. 8, 2007, in Hollywood, Fla., of an accidental prescription overdose.
Stern's testimony came a day after another of Smith's exes, Larry Birkhead, took the stand and dropped a few bombshells, revealing that Daniel had fallen in with a bad crowd, started drinking heavily and had been caught stealing methadone from his mother's stash.
The celebrity photographer and father of Dannielynn—now the sole heir of Smith's estate—also told the court he witnessed the buxom beauty give her son an Ecstasy pill in an effort to keep his drug use in the house.
Campbell adjourned the proceedings for the Easter holiday. The jury will begin its deliberations March 31.
"The evidence appears to be simple," he stated. "But it requires more time for review."