Inquest into Anna Nicole’s son’s death resumes

updated 4:39 p.m. ET Jan. 30, 2008

NASSAU Bahamas - An inquest into the death of Anna Nicole Smith’s 20-year-old son was to continue Wednesday with South Carolina developer G. Ben Thompson among those expected to testify.

Thompson, one of her ex-boyfriends, was involved in an ownership dispute over the house in the Bahamas where the reality TV star lived with attorney-turned-boyfriend Howard K. Stern before she died last year from an overdose of prescription drugs.

Larry Birkhead, the father of her 1-year-old daughter, Dannielynn, may appear at court sessions in February or March, said Neil Braithwaite, senior counsel in the attorney general’s office.

Illness has kept Birkhead from traveling to the Bahamas, a government lawyer said Wednesday.

So far, about 30 witnesses have testified before a seven-member jury, which will formally determine what killed Daniel Smith. The jury can recommend criminal charges if it finds evidence of wrongdoing.

Police have said there is no evidence of homicide in Daniel Smith’s death, and an autopsy found the likely cause was a combination of drugs, including methadone and antidepressants.

Hearings resumed this week after a postponement last month to gain the participation of more witnesses, including Birkhead.

Daniel Smith died Sept. 10, 2006, while visiting his celebrity mother at a Nassau hospital where she had given birth to her daughter three days earlier.

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