October 28, 2010, Howard K. Stern was convicted on two felony charges of conspiracy.  He was accused of assisting Anna Nicole Smith, a 39 year-old actress, in obtaining illegal medications under a false name.  Stern could end up with a three year prison term but most likely will not receive any jail time.  Stern will probably file an appeal.

Khristine Eroshevich, Smith’s psychiatrist, was also found guilty of conspiracy and was convicted on two counts of unlawfully prescribing and obtaining medication under a false name.

Smith’s doctor, Sandeep Kapoor was charged with providing an excessive amount of painkillers to a known drug addict and was acquitted.

Howard K. Stern was Anna Nicole Smith’s boyfriend and lawyer at the time of her death on February 8, 2007.  Smith was found unresponsive in her hotel room at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Florida and was pronounced dead on arrival when her body reached the hospital.

Medical examiners named drug intoxication, with sleeping pills being the main component, as the cause of Smith’s death and ruled it an accidental overdose.  There was a combination of 11 different drugs found in Smith’s system during the autopsy.  Out of the eleven drugs found, none of them were prescribed to Smith.  Eight of the drugs were prescribed to Howard K. Stern, two to Alex Katz, and one was prescribed to Khristine Eroshevich.  All eleven drugs found in Smith’s body were prescribed by Eroshevich.

When the nine week trial began in August 2010, prosecutors named Stern as the enabler for Smith’s drug addiction.  Stern was also accused of seven counts of administering and dispensing a controlled substance to a known addict and was acquitted.

Smith was best known for being Playboy Playmate of the year in 1993 as well as her career in modeling, film, and television from 1994 to 2004.

by Jana Hughes

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