Smith's mom says Stern makes her fear for baby's life
Smith's mom says Stern makes her fear for baby's life - CNN.com
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (CNN) -- Anna Nicole Smith's mother said Wednesday that she's afraid for the safety of her 5-month-old granddaughter, Dannielynn, while the baby is in the care of Howard K. Stern, her late daughter's lawyer and companion.
In emotional testimony often interrupted by sobs, Virgie Arthur linked the deaths of Smith and her adult son, Daniel, to Stern.
"My grandson did not overdose," she told a hearing in Broward Circuit Court. "Howard was there when he died. And Howard was there when my daughter died. And he has my granddaughter now, and it's not even his child, and I'm afraid for her life as well. Please help us."
A somber Stern testified Tuesday that Smith was "everything to me" and Daniel was like a brother to him. He also has said he is the father of Dannielynn.
Arthur is battling Stern for custody of her daughter's body. (Watch Arthur describe checking Smith into rehab )
Arthur said her estrangement from her daughter only began after the former Playboy playmate met Stern.
She told the hearing that Smith was a tomboy as a child who loved frogs and made the family laugh.
"She loved life, even as she got older," Arthur said. "She wasn't estranged from me all those years. We were still in contact. It was when she got older, at the age when she met Howard Stern, that I started not being able to get hold of her or being able to talk to her, except every three or four months."
Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin interrupted Arthur's testimony briefly Wednesday for a conference call with the Broward County medical examiner, Dr. Joshua Perper, about the condition of Smith's body.
Seidlin told Perper he intended to render a decision by Friday morning.
On Tuesday, Perper had expressed concern about the deterioration of the body and said Smith should be buried no later than Saturday.
Seidlin told attorneys he had not made his decision yet, but he hinted that he was looking for a compromise that would not be a clearcut victory for either side.
One of Stern's attorneys questioned Arthur about whether she stood to make money from Smith's death.
"The only one that's ever, ever made any money off of my daughter is that man sitting right there," said a tearful Arthur, indicating Stern. "That's why he wants her body."
In brief testimony Tuesday, Arthur described her daughter as out of control. Asked what caused the years-long rift between them, Arthur's answer was quick and to the point: "Drugs." (Watch Arthur and Stern make their cases )
Arthur said Smith sometimes would call at odd hours in a "drugged" condition.
Their relationship, she told Seidlin, went sour in the mid-'90s. Since then, she said, her daughter kept in contact "off and on -- not very often. She'd call me in the middle of the night."
Arthur, a former police officer, testified that she raised Smith's son, Daniel, when he was a small child. She said she never met Stern and believes her daughter fell into bad company and drug abuse.
Arthur wants to take Smith's body to Texas to be buried in the family plot, and to exhume Daniel's body and rebury him in Texas.
Arthur testified that when Smith was young, she wanted to be buried in Texas. But under questioning from the attorney representing Dannielynn's interests, Arthur conceded that the last time they had discussed it, Smith said she wanted to be buried in California with Hollywood stars.
Stern insists Smith wanted to be buried in the Bahamas, next to Daniel. Stern still lives there with Dannielynn, who was born three days before Daniel, 20, died in his mother's hospital room.
"Anna was very firm," he testified. "The Bahamas was her home. That's where she wanted to raise Dannielynn, and she wanted Daniel to be near her."
The former television reality show star collapsed and died February 8 at a casino hotel near Hollywood, Florida.
Stern testified that Smith, wailing, "I want to be buried with him," tried to climb into Daniel's casket when he was buried in the Bahamas after dying last fall apparently from a lethal combination of methadone and anti-depressants. (Full story)
Stern's attorneys played a tape of Smith's last television interview. On the tape, Smith showed animosity toward her mother, referring to her as "Mommie Dearest." She said they had no relationship and charged: "She's just out to make a name for herself."
Paternity claims
Beyond the issue of who has the right to choose Smith's burial site, other complicated questions loom, involving Dannielynn's future and Smith's estate.
The stakes are huge -- perhaps $88 million or more. Smith's heir or heirs stand to inherit a stake in her longstanding claim to the $1.6 billion fortune of her late husband, Texas oil baron J. Howard Marshall II. (Watch CNN's Jeffrey Toobin try to untangle the legal mess )
Stern is one of at least three men who claim to be Dannielynn's father. His name is on her birth certificate. He testified that he and Smith had planned to be married this week.
A former boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, who also claims to be Dannielynn's father, attended Tuesday's hearing with a team of lawyers. One of them said Birkhead might testify on Arthur's behalf.
In her will, released Friday, Smith left everything to Daniel. She also named Stern as executor, according to the document dated July 30, 2001. The 16-page will was never updated, and does not mention Dannielynn, who was born in September. (Read the will -- pdf)