AP News, November 21st, 2007
In the hours before his death, the 20-year-old son of Anna Nicole Smith appeared fine to medical personnel in the Bahamas, who said Tuesday they saw him walking in his celebrity mother's room, talking and sleeping in the same bed with her.
On the second day of an inquest into the Sept. 10, 2006, death of Daniel Smith, nursing assistant Francis Woodside said the young man was sleeping in the same bed as his mother, while her attorney and partner Howard K. Stern slept in the other, about 3 hours and 40 minutes before a hospital-wide alarm that he had been found unconscious.
Woodside noted nothing unusual in the room except the sleeping arrangements. "We don't usually have that happen, patients sleeping in the bed with relatives," she told a jury that will decide the official cause of death and whether authorities should pursue any criminal charges.
Nurse-midwife Janice Knowles and phlebotomist Mavis Davis also testified that they did not notice anything wrong with Smith before medical personnel found him not breathing and with no pulse at about 9:40 a.m.
Police have said there is no evidence of homicide in Daniel Smith's death and an autopsy found the likely cause was a combination of drugs, including methadone and antidepressants.
Nurse Nadine Carey testified Tuesday that she found two round tablets on the bed that hospital employees previously said was occupied by Stern. She did not say what kind of pills they were, only that they were turned over to senior nursing staff.
Another nurse, Catriona McTaggart, said Anna Nicole Smith was "crying hysterically" as medical personnel frantically tried to revive her son after his collapse.
Smith was visiting his mother after the reality TV star gave birth three days earlier to daughter Dannielynn, who became the subject of a bitter custody battle after the former Playboy playmate herself collapsed and died Feb. 8 in Florida.
Testimony is scheduled to resume Dec. 10. Authorities at the coroner's inquest did not announce a reason for the adjournment.
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Associated Press writer Artesia Davis contributed to this report.
