2 convicted in Anna Nicole Smith drug case
Last Updated: Thursday, October 28, 2010 | 6:39 PM ET
The Associated Press
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Anna Nicole Smith, shown Feb. 28, 2006, died in a Florida hotel room of an accidental overdose. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press)A Los Angeles jury on Thursday convicted Anna Nicole Smith's psychiatrist, Khristine Eroshevich, and boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, of conspiracy counts but acquitted the doctor who prescribed her drugs.
Smith, a former Playboy model, died in a Florida hotel room in 2007 of a lethal combination of drugs at age 39.
Prosecutors contended during the nine-week trial that the defendants were dazzled by Smith's glamour and filled her demands for prescription drugs to protect their insider status in her personal life and her celebrity world.
The jury deliberated about 58 hours before reaching a verdict.
Stern, Kapoor and Eroshevich had been charged with conspiracy, excessive prescribing of opiates and sedatives to an addict and fraudulently obtaining drugs by using false names.
The jury was charged with deciding if the three defendants were trying to relieve Smith's emotional and physical pain or were feeding her addiction to prescription drugs.
Stern was convicted of giving false names and acting by fraud to obtain prescriptions. Eroshevich was also convicted of unlawfully prescribing Vicodin by fraud. The jury acquitted defendant Dr. Sandeep Kapoor of all charges.
The jury found the prosecution did not present enough evidence to convict Kapoor of six charges that he provided excessive prescription drugs to Smith.
Stern, 41, had been Smith's lawyer, manager, lover and friend since they met in 2001. Testimony showed they were inseparable, even when she was involved with other men. In 2006, Smith and Stern had a commitment ceremony on a catamaran off the Bahamas but were never legally married.
Smith began life as Vickie Lynn Marshall and spent much of her life in the public spotlight after being named 1993 Playmate of the year.
She married millionaire J. Howard Marshall, 89, and after her husband died, she became embroiled in a lengthy legal battle over his estate.
Smith, right, is shown Oct. 2, 2000, with her attorney and devoted companion Howard K. Stern in Houston. He was convicted of giving false names and acting by fraud to obtain prescriptions. (Brett Cooomer/Associated Press)Smith, who hankered after glamour and fame, had a reality TV show and brief movie career.
Her son, Daniel Smith, died in 2006 at age 20, shortly after the birth of her second child, a girl. His death was also drug-related.
Smith had become dependent on opiates and sedatives after being diagnosed and treated for chronic pain syndrome and illnesses including seizures, migraines and spinal pain.
While presenting their case, prosecutors displayed multiple prescriptions made out to Smith for heavy painkillers such as Dilaudid, Demarol, Vicodin and Methadone, as well as anti-anxiety drugs and sedatives, including Ambien, Xanax, Valium and Chloral Hydrate. In one month, they said, Smith received 1,500 pills.
The judge, however, warned that numbers of pills were not the measure of addiction.
"To violate [the law], a defendant must willfully and knowingly prescribe, administer or dispense a controlled substance to an addict for a non-therapeutic purpose," Perry instructed the jury.
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