Prosecutors in the trial of Anna Nicole Smith’s boyfriend and two physicians is expected to come to an end this week. The trial has lasted seven weeks. Smith’s boyfriend Howard K. Stern and two physicians, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, are on trial for allegedly conspiring to feed Smith’s drug addiction. The three are also on trial for using false names to obtain the drugs for Smith.
On Wednesday, jurors watched a video of Smith bathing with her baby daughter, Dannielynn, only two months before her death in February of 2007.
"Momma didn’t mean it, I’m sorry," Smith said in the video when Dannielynn began crying as her mother washed her face.
The jury watched raptly as the video was played in open court. The prosecution played the 13-minute video to bolster their argument that the model’s speech was slurred and her mind was clouded from the drugs.
On the opposite side of the aisle, the defense does not deny Smith took a huge amount of drugs over some period of time. The defense argues that Eroshevich and Kapoor were treating Smith for chronic pain that had been diagnosed by other physicians.
"If she’s being treated for pain, it’s not illegal," said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry.
In the past few weeks, Judge Perry has suggested that the prosecution had fallen short of proving the center of its case, primarily that Smith was addicted to pain medication. Earlier this week, Judge Perry told the attorneys that he thinking about dropping some of the charges before the case goes to the jury.
"I expect some charges will likely survive in some form," Perry said.
Stern, Eroshevich and Kapoor are not charged in Smith’s death. The Broward County, Florida medical examiner said that Smith’s death was from an accidental overdose of a sleeping pill, a lethal mix of prescription drugs and a case of the viral flu.
