Bahamas News

Today marks one year since former starlet Anna Nicole Smith died suddenly in a Florida hotel and casino, leaving behind the controversy that had dogged her and her family and which gathered steam with the sudden death of her 20-year-old son Daniel Smith at a local hospital.

Born Vickie Lynn Hogan, the buxom beauty and former reality TV star, moved to The Bahamas to escape the critical glare of the international media and to give birth to her daughter Dannielynn.

However, her dreams of leaving the papparazzi behind came to a tragic end when her son colleaped in her hospital room at Doctors Hospital in September 2006 from what one forensic pathologist said was a lethal combination of per scri ption drugs.

Two toxicology reports indicated that Daniel had a combination of eight drugs in his system – a mixture of anti-depressants and stimulants.

Ironically, it was determined that Anna Nicole died from an accidental per scri ption drugoverdose as well some five months later.

Daniel was Anna Nicole’s child with her first husband.

A coroner’s inquest is still going on in a Bahamas court to officially determine what contributed to Daniel’s death.

The last time the court met, two, once close friends of Anna Nicole G. Ben Thompson and his son-in-law Ford Shelley recounted how they saw the young Smith’s lifeless body in the hospital room and that on September 10, 2006.

The inquest resumes on March 17, when the last four witnesses, including Dannielynn’s father Larry Birkhead and Mr. Stern, are expected to be called to the witness stand.

Although he now has full custody of the child, it had been a rough road getting to that point. Following Daniel’s death, a fierce custody battle over baby Dannielynn ensued which wound through both Bahamian and US courts.

At the end of the ordeal Birkhead was declared the biological father.He is now raising Dannielynn. She was then married to late billionaire J. Howard Marshall and battled with his family over his fortune following his death in 1995.Who will now get that money remains up in the air.

The Bahamas related angle to the Anna Nicole saga was one that reach the top levels in government. The biggest scandal revolved around her relationship with former housing and immigration minister Shane Gibson who was accused of fast tracking her application for permanent residency status because of his relationship with the former playboy starlet.

For many months Mr. Gibson and the former PLP administration vigorously defended themselves against all charges of impropriety. But eventually the saga escalated into even more criticisms when photographs were printed in the media of the two locked in an embrace.

Eventually, Mr. Gibson resigned as a cabinet minister, all the while declaring that his relationship with Anna Nicole and her family was above board.

It followed allegations that the former minister had received a Rolex watch from Ms. Smith as a thank you present for her approval as a permanent resident.

Anna Nicole Smith gained popularity in her youth as a Marilyn Monroe lookalike.

Conflict seemed the follow Anna Nicole in her adult years.

Born and raised in Texas, she had dropped out of high school and first married at the age of 17. Her highly publicized marriage to oil business “Corporate officer” executive and billionaire J. Howard Marshall, 63 years her senior, resulted in speculation that she married the octogenarian for his money, which she denied.

Following Marshall’s death, she began a lengthy legal battle over a share of his estate; her case, Marshall v. Marshall, reached the U.S. Supreme Court on a question of federal jurisdiction.

She became involved in litigation with Marshall’s son E. Pierce Marshall and temporarily joined forces with his other son, James Howard Marshall III, whom the elder Howard had disowned.

In 1996, Smith filed for bankruptcy in California as a result of a $850,000 judgment against her for sexual harassment of an employee. As any money potentially due to her from the Marshall estate was part of her potential assets, the bankruptcy court involved itself in the matter.

Smith claimed J. Howard orally promised her half of his estate if she married him. In September 2000, a Los Angeles bankruptcy judge awarded her $449,754,134.

In July 2001, Houston judge Mike Wood affirmed the jury findings in the probate case by ruling that Smith was entitled to nothing and ordered Smith to pay over $1 million in fees and expenses to Pierce’s legal team. The conflict between the Texas probate court and California bankruptcy court judgments forced the matter into federal court.

In March 2002, a federal judge vacated the California bankruptcy court’s ruling and issued a new ruling but reduced the award to $88 million. In December 2004, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the March 2002 decision, affirming the Texas Probate jury findings that no misconduct had occurred, Smith was not one of J. Howard Marshall’s heirs and that the federal courts lacked jurisdiction to overrule the probate decisions of a Texas state court.

Source: Bahama Journal