Just picked up a copy of US Weekly magazine. This blog does not correctly process question marks in the title. If possible, I would have placed a big question mark ??? behind the “Tombstone for Anna Nicole” part.

US magazine published a story about the arrival of Dannielynn’s 2nd birthday. She sure is a cutie and I hope she had a wonderful time.

As I read the article, I came upon this paragraph quoting Larry Birkhead;

What does this birthday mean to you?

…Today I’m toy shopping; last week I was tombstone shopping for Anna’s grave. [He and Howard K. Stern plan to put it on her Bahamian grave to commemorate what would have been her 41st birthday on November 28]

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Daniel Wayne Smith was born in Mexia, Texas on Jan. 22, 1986 to Billy and Vicki Lynn Smith aka Anna Nicole Smith. He spent the first six years of his life living with his grandmother, Virgie Arthur whom he adored, due to his mother working nights and starting a career that would eventually propel her to stardom.

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Those of us who have been following the investigations and subsequent lawsuits surrounding the deaths of Anna Nicole Smith and her son Daniel Wayne Smith have at one time or another been threatened with exposure to lawsuits, physical violence and other sundry unmentionable acts. At times, I have felt embarrassed, humiliated, angered, outraged, amused and frustrated. But lately the dominant emotion has been disbelief. Disbelief, that human beings can behave in a manner that I never imagined before joining the list of interested citizens reading and voicing my opinion on the subject.

Many have expressed their frustration over the perception that their fundamental right to free speech has been threatened and at times thwarted by persons involved in this whole mess of a media and legal circus. Most of these rants have no basis in fact or law and the problem is easily remedied by simply clicking on the “red x” in the corner and retiring with a good book. But not all the concerns expressed can be so casually dismissed. As tawdry and at times silly as some of this is, there are profound legal and moral issues involved.

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Former FBI agent and Houston Bureau Chief turned investigator Don Clark appeared on Scared Monkeys Radio to speak about the results of the Bahamian inquest into the death of Daniel Smith.

The following is a rough outline of some of Mr. Clark’s comments to show host Dana Pretzer.

Clark: Focus in the inquest was switched to an individual who could not testify or come back and refute. The people that were there, their testimony was totally different from what we have heard and read before. There was a 180 degree turn.

The person that had the finger pointed at her that was listed as the responsible party, concerning drugs, types of drugs and doses taken.. that person was not there to testify. I will give the jury credit, when they heard that information, they had to be stunned.

Where things seemed to have broken down was that there was no real opportunity for the jury to compare factual information, testimonial information of what people have said in this inquest or other judicial proceedings. There are clear records. I’m not going to pull any punches, there were clear records of certain things that Howard Stern said in court in Florida and certain statements that Bahamian police have taken and that was totally different than what was said on the witness stand and by other witness as well.

The host Dana Pretzer asked what has today’s society done to contribute to this particular tragedy?

Clark: An old FBI agent said, it’s all about the money. I’ts about whatever a particular entity can get on camera or on film and be able to display and show. Unfortunately that is what it seems to be. Unfortunately for the viewing public, they only get what someone else has decided the public needs to see and hear.

This case, in my life, I have never seen anything like this, that has moved to the scale that it has. It seems certain outlooks and certain people have different views on things and they only paint those and paint the other party in the worst light whether they deserve that or not.

Clark: Bottom line, this pretty much closes the lid on this aspect of the case. I don’t know what could pop up now. I go back to the initial investigation. Even if the jury had decided an open verdict, an open verdict would mean they know something happened, they didn’t think it was an accident, they did not think it was a suicide, they just did not see enough facts and evidence to move it forward to the next level. Even if it would have come back with that, I just don’t see that there is enough evidence available in the Bahamas to be able to present to a regular court and jury to find someone guilty of something or to say there was no guilt here.

I take that back to the investigation from everything that I know about the investigation at this point. From the way that the scene was handled in the hospital, to the way that witness were handled, to the way the statements were taken, I don’t see that the evidence is there to make a case.

But the reality is if any person takes a look at transcripts in the Bahamas, and if statements were taken and analyzed properly, they will see that there was a lot of opportunity there for significant investigation to try to find out what happened in the death of Daniel.

Having said that, I think there is an opportunity to find out what happened in the death of Anna. I just don’t believe that the envelope should be sealed at this point. I think there is opportunity there to see what really happened in the case of her death in Florida.

Dana Pretzler: What can we in the media do to be fair in a case like this?

Clark: People want to surmise and come to their own conclusions but the way to find that is to follow the facts and not put a particular twist on it concerning the direction that you want it to go. If media sticks to facts and circumstances and not be so selective as to what pieces of sound byte they put out there then we can move on to the next program.

Just be a little more responsible about what they say about people that someone may have casually said to them and they don’t even know this person. This person is a nice person with a great reputation. Then all of a sudden one bit of info comes up and this person is terrible and that is not a good thing for a professional media outlet to be doing.

Pretzer concluded that this has happened in this case to all sides.

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Tonight, Tuesday night, there is a double feature on the airwaves. Don Clark will be on Scared Monkeys Radio at 9:00pm eastern standard time.

Howard K. Stern will appear for the whole hour I am told, on Fox News Greta Van Susteren’s show, “On the Record”. Greta’s show starts at 10:00pm eastern standard time.

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After being given instructions on what could be deliberated upon in the inquest into the death of Daniel Smith in the Bahamas, the jury told the magistrate that they were not satisfied with the choices. They then requested transcripts from the testimony to use in their deliberations. The magistrate also refused that request.

With no satisfactory options left for them, the jury came back with a verdict of “Non Dependant Drug Use”. No further details are available at this time.

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Don Clark interview on www.scaredmonkeysradio.com

Former FBI Bureau chief Don Clark along with Houston attorney Neil McCabe attended the inquest in the Bahamas into the death of Daniel Smith on behalf of Virgie Arthur, Daniels grandmother, who also attended.

Anna Nicole Smith’s only son died of an overdose of methadone three days after the birth of her daughter Dannielynn while Daniel was visiting them at Doctors Hospital in Nassau.

Mr. Clark explained the Bahamian court system is based upon British law. He states there are differences between their methods and the court room methods used in the United States.

He said that a Bahamian attorney was hired to guide Arthur’s attorneys through the legal “maze” and did as good of a job as anyone could hope for in determining how Daniel Smith died. When asked about a potential verdict, he said that he is skeptical as to what the ruling will be.

He said in any investigation, the scene must be secured and evidence preserved to determine a correct conclusion. However there was a void in the facts that were allowed to be presented such as the statement that was given by two nannies that cared for Dannielynn. It was not allowed into evidence. The nannies could not be located to provide their testimony.

Clark stated the huge dose of 20 to 22 tablets of methadone is what experts said killed Daniel. Also noted is that up until July of 2006, there was no evidence of any use of any kind of drugs by Daniel.

What he thought was relevant is that Daniel landed in a California hospital in July of 2006 due to anxiety and depression on the same day that Howard K. Stern left the country to join Anna Nicole in the Bahamas.

The only person that gave any testimony to the contrary was Larry Birkhead who said that Daniel and a couple of friends stole methadone from the refrigerator at the Studio City, California house. But it was argued that it’s far fetched that anything taken out of the refrigerator could be identified due to the positioning of the surveillance camera.

Mr. Clark said news reports that have been published are wrong concerning potential verdicts being taken “off the table”.

Nothing has been ruled out. The judge did not give the jury any instructions yet. So the rumor that a potential finding of homicide being taken off the table is false. He said that it was only agreed between attorneys that Daniel did not commit suicide.

Clark said hospital video of Daniel shows a young man who is happy and excited to see his mother and meet his new baby sister. He added that when a nurse came to the room to remove the baby for the night, Daniel requested the baby be allowed to stay in the room overnight.

ScaredMonkeysRadio.com said they plan to interview Mr Clark after the conclusion of the inquest.

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With so much conflicting information coming out, I think it will be safe to say that this inquest is not a trial. Its a coroners inquest and the jury has been given extra time to decide because of the complexity of the situation. It has been reported that Magistrate Campbell has stated that what happened to Daniel is most likely not a homicide nor is it a suicide. So, I am withdrawing what was written previously. If you look below even Yahoo made a small retraction. Love 97 radio reported that reporters were not permitted in the court room when the summations were given. Magistrate Campbell stated that he will give his final summation on March 31st as he also needs more time.

It is very interesting to note that on the very important day of Howard’s testimony, Wayne Munroe was NOT present. Yes, why was Mr Munroe there every day except for that particular crucial day?

From Yahoo and Associated Press

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080320/ap_en_ot/bahamas_anna_nicole_smith_son

Bahamas judge delays Smith deliberations

NASSAU, Bahamas - A judge on Thursday postponed deliberations of a Bahamas jury charged with deciding what killed the son of former Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith. Read the rest of this entry »

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Once again, I was able to speak to a source who was present in the courtroom.

Jack Harding nor Melanie Thompson were present today as expected. The Nannies were also missing and their statement was not allowed into evidence. The statement from the nurse that has not been able to be located was allowed. She had said that Howard left the hospital twice on the early morning hours of September 10th.. Once for food and then again for unknown purposes.

Howard testified that he loved Daniel like a brother and never thought that he would kill himself. He admitted taking the picture of Daniel after he died and was being cradled in his mothers arms. He testified that he was asked to take the picture by Anna Nicole and if he had to do it all over again, he would still take the picture. Howard also stated that he had no idea that Daniel was using any type of medication, prescribed for him or otherwise.

Howard also testified that he did not carry any drugs for Anna Nicole. He has no knowledge of a duffel bag. He said that Anna Nicole took care of her own drugs. She prepared and administered them to herself, he said.

Witness testimony is concluded. The court will reconvene on Thursday morning where there will be summations heard by the court. The jury will then deliberate and if any decision is made other than suicide or accidental death, there will be more investigation by Bahamian authorities and possibly the United States will then become involved.

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In spite of the previous post, I was able to contact sources that were in the courtroom today during the inquest hearing for Daniel Smith. Here are the actual highlights of today’s proceedings.

In a Bahamian courtroom, the witness stands when they testify. A chair may be requested but today only two requested a chair. A pregnant woman and Larry Birkhead. That one caused a bit of a chuckle in the audience.

Most remember that Larry Birkhead gave a statement to Bahamian police concerning the death of Daniel Smith in 2006. Today Larry attempted to paint a picture of Daniel as being a rowdy drug using teenager which conflicted with that prior statement.

There have been no medical records out of California or evidence or official reports of Daniel abusing drugs or having drugs in his system contrary to what has been told to the public.

Larry testified that there were cameras mounted to the ceiling in many rooms in Anna Nicole’s house. He said there is a video showing Daniel taking methadone out of the refrigerator. Questioning revealed because of the positioning, there is no possible way to see what was in the refrigerator or taken out of it and that fact was proven today.

As questioning went on and Birkhead’s answers continued to conflict with his 2006 statement that he gave to the Bahamian police, Magistrate Campbell asked Larry to read his statement. Larry refused. Magistrate Campbell admonished Larry and said he has the discretion to detain him in jail for seven days for not cooperating or answering questions and he would do so if Larry did not start answering the questions. Larry said he thinks that he should have an attorney present. The magistrate told him that he is a witness and there is no need for an attorney.

Transcripts are not readily available from the Bahamian court as they are in the United States, so the jury must carefully take notes to refer to when they are in deliberation. At one point, even the jury seemed exasperated with Larry and stopped their usual note taking.

Howard K. Stern’s attorney Wayne Munroe questioned Larry concerning when Anna Nicole was pregnant and in the hospital detoxing from methadone. It was said that even though she was there to detox, Howard gave Anna Nicole the duffel bag containing the very substance that she was detoxing from. Also notable was the fact that Anna Nicole’s doctor entered her hospital room at that time carrying an ultrasound of the baby. The doctor showed the ultrasound picture not to Howard but to Larry as if he knew that Larry was really the father.

All in all, it was not a good day for Larry Birkhead who occasionally covered his face with his hands during testimony. He finally had to admit that not only did he never see or have any personal knowledge of Daniel taking or using drugs but he also never saw or had personal knowledge of Anna Nicole giving Daniel any drugs either.

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