Father of Anna Nicole's Daughter Testifies

The father of Anna Nicole Smith's daughter testified Thursday that he expressed his concerns that she was taking too many medications less than two years before she died from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.
  
Smith's longtime companion, Howard K. Stern, and two doctors, Sandeep Kapoor and Khristine Eroshevich, are charged with conspiring to prescribe, administer and dispense controlled substances to an addict from June 2004 until Feb. 8, 2007 -- the day Smith died from an accidental pescription drug overdose in a Florida hotel room at age 39. They aren't charged with causing Smith's death.
  
Today, photographer Larry Birkhead told the Los Angeles Superior Court jury that in early 2005, Smith's ``normal regimen'' of medications included an array of powerful painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs, among them Methadone, Klonopin, Valium, Ambien, Soma, Vicodin and Demerol.
  
``I've never seen anyone have the multitude of medications'' Smith was taking, ``and to me, that was too much,'' Birkhead said, noting that the drugs were ``a frequent topic of conversation'' between the two.
  
When the couple discussed the subject, Birkhead said Smith would tell him, ``I'm not a drug addict ... I have a high tolerance.''
  
Birkhead, 37, said he met Smith in May 2003 at a charity event before the Kentucky Derby and began a relationship with her after seeing her at the derby a year later.
  
He said he moved in with her at her house in Studio City in the summer of 2004 and lived with her until May 2006.
  
Birkhead said that in late 2005, he became so concerned about Smith's dependance on drugs that he hid a bottle of Methadone from her.
  
Shortly afterwards, he received an urgent telephone call from Stern, asking where the bottle was, Birkhead told the six-man, six-woman downtown
jury.
  
``I was told by Howard she needed it to live,'' he said.
  
Birkhead said that when he confronted Smith about the drugs, she would ``always say'' that they were ``medications prescribed by doctors.''
  
Birkhead, the father of Smith's now-3-year-old daughter, Dannielynn, is expected to resume his testimony Friday.
  
Earlier today, Bonnie Stern, Howard Stern's sister, identified e-mails between herself and Smith in which they apparently discussed shipping drugs to the Bahamas.
  
In one message, Smith -- whose e-mail address was ``HotSmoochieLips'' -- wrote: ``Please have the meds sent. I need, I need!!''
  
Another message from the reality TV star discussed Demerol and Soma and told Bonnie Stern to ``put in Howard's name.''
  
Bonnie Stern, testifying under a grant of immunity from prosecution, told the jury that she didn't know exactly what Smith was talking about.
  
``I don't know what was being got,'' she told the jury.