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Daniel Smith's Death "Intentional"?

Wed., Jan. 30, 2008 10:02 AM PST by Gina Serpe

Daniel Smith was one famous celebuspawn who apparently had no desire to follow in his parent's footsteps.

So testified a family friend in the Bahamas Tuesday in the ongoing inquest into the death of the late son of the late Anna Nicole Smith, just hours after a toxicologist took the stand claiming that the high amount of drugs found in Daniel's system were likely the result of an "intentional ingestion."

Ford Shelley, the son-in-law of G. Ben Thompson, a former boyfriend of the reality star and the developer who owned the Nassau home Smith and Howard K. Stern resided in the months leading up to her death, told the Coroner's Court that the 20-year-old boy was a "brilliant" child who had for years been "living in a shell" as a result of his mother's overshadowing fame and larger-than-life public persona.

"He wanted to break free," Shelley said. "He loved his mother but didn't want to be known as her son."

Shelley also rejected speculation that the boy had been abusing drugs, saying that he wouldn't—and physically couldn't—have been an addict, claiming he "couldn't even hold his liquor" and was "afraid of his own shadow."

While on the stand, however, Shelley did admit to witnessing an incident involving pills and Stern shortly after the boy's death.

Shelley claimed he saw the attorney and former Anna Nicole confidante find two pills in the pocket of a pair of pants belonging to the recently deceased Smith.

"He walked into the bathroom and flushed the two pills," he said. "I asked Howard what he had done, and Howard said he 'took care of a problem.' "

For his part, Stern was present in the courtroom for Tuesday's hearing but did not speak during the proceedings. Anna Nicole's estranged mother, Virgie Arthur, was also on hand for the testimony.

Shelley further testified that while Daniel had a history of serious depression and had recently ended a relationship with his girlfriend, he did not believe that the boy was suicidal at the time of his death.

His account of Daniel's state of mind differed from evidence proffered later in the day by Dr. William Lee Hern, the director of the Medical Examiner's office in Miami-Dade County, where official toxicology tests on the boy were carried out.

While eight different drugs, a combination of antidepressants and stimulants, were found in Daniel's body at the time of his death, "clearly the methadone was the key in understanding this death."

"But for the methadone, he would not have died."

Hern further claimed that, while he could not know for certain whether he did so deliberately or unintentionally, the large amount of drugs taken by Daniel in such a short amount of time—a onetime dosage of four pills rather than one, possibly diluted in a drink—lent itself to "a high degree of probability" that the overdose of drugs was "an intentional ingestion."

"Based on the amount in the stomach, it was not an attempt to get high," he said. "It was enough to kill him, with some left over unabsorbed. If what was in his blood hadn't killed him, the remainder would have continued its toxic effect."

Hern said that the boy likely took a lethal dose of methadone tablets around 5:30 a.m. on Sept. 10, 2006—three days after the birth of his sister Dannielynn. Hern said it would likely have taken between 20 and 30 minutes for him to grow lethargic and fall into a progressively deeper sleep before dying two or three hours later.

Hospital records previously indicated that a code blue was called to the room, where Stern was also present, at 9:40 a.m.

The inquest resumed hearing testimony Wednesday.