Los Angeles, Oct 14 (THAINDIAN NEWS) The late Anna Nicole Smith’s partner and also the father of her three-year-old daughter, Larry Birkhead is all set to testify in court at a preliminary hearing in the case involving the celebrity model’s drug-overdose death.

Defense attorneys said they had been notified by the prosecution that Larry Birkhead, the musician who proved he was the father of Smith’s daughter by DNA testing, would be among those called to testify on Wednesday which is the second day of a preliminary hearing for two doctors and Smith’s former attorney-boyfriend, Howard K. Stern.

Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, Dr. Khristina Eroshevich and Stern are the 3 people who are charged with conspiring to illegally provide Anna Nichole Smith with controlled substances before her death. The three have pleaded not guilty to the drug charges. Their lawyers maintain they are blameless in the death of a strong willed woman who furnished her own course of medical treatment and usage of drugs.

Defense attorney Adam Braun said that an audio recording of authorities interviewing Birkhead was turned over to him recently. He said he had not had time to study it and would ask to delay Birkhead’s testimony.

On Tuesday, Deputy District Attorney Renee Rose played a video of Anna Smith’s appearance on the 2004 American Music Awards in which she introduced the musician Kanye West, as “a freakin’ genius” with slurred words. Some thought she was drunk but Stern’s attorney said she had taken the medication diazepam for a seizure she had suffered.

“Video is video,” Sadow said later outside court. “We’re not running from it. It’s what she was on that day. It just depends on the context of why she was that day. We all have bad days.

“She had medical problems,” he said. “If she’s on medication for that, that would explain her activity.”

Her bodyguard found Anna Nichole Smith dead in her bed at a Florida casino hotel on Feb. 8, 2007. Her death at age 39 was said to be by an accidental overdose.

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