Anna Nicole Smith’s Former Boyfriend Howard K. Stern and Doctors to Stand Trial

Howard K. Stern and two doctors have been ordered to stand trial for feeding the prescription drug addiction that led to the death of former Playboy model, Anna Nicole Smith. According to Fox News, the judge who oversaw the hearing decided that there was enough evidence to charge the three with conspiracy, to provide Smith with large amounts of sedatives and opiates.

The defense attorneys argued that Attorney Howard K. Stern, Dr. Sandeep, and psychiatrist Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, fought desperately to save Smith in her waning years, including through the period of the birth of her daughter, and the death of her son, who also died of drug overdose.

 Fox News reported that one of the prosecution’s evidence produced in the hearing was a transcript of an investigator’s interview with Anna Nicole Smith’s friend, who stated that she witnessed Stern placing pills in Smith’s mouth. In an interview with Fox News, Gina Shelley said “He poured them in her mouth like you would a bird”

The Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry, in his ruling stressed that only a minimal proof is required for a reasonable person to suspect that the defendants committed the alleged crimes. One charge against Eroshevich that she provided Smith with placebos was dropped due to insufficient evidence.

Anna Nicole Smith died of an accidental drug overdose involving nine medications at a hotel in Florida, in 2007. The defendants were not being charged with causing Smith’s death, but the three are accused of conspiracy in illegally providing Smith with controlled substances and supplying drugs to an addict. The defense attorneys argue that they did not know Smith was an addict, but were only trying to help her.

The three pleaded not guilty are set to be arraigned on December 11, 2009. The trial date is yet to be announced. If convicted, the defendants face more than five years in prison.