Daniel Smith's Final Cause Of Death: Accidental Overdose

After deliberating for less than two hours, a Bahamas jury determined that the son of late Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith, Daniel Smith, died of an accidental overdose and recommended no criminal charges in his death which occured almost two years ago.

It took exactly 73 minutes for the seven-member jury to reach an unanimous verdict after being presented with their options, "non-dependent abuse of drugs," "accident or misadventure," or return an open verdict.

The 20-year-old son of the former model was found dead on September 10, 2006, in the same Nassau hospital in which Anna Nicole Smith gave birth to his baby sister three days before. Police said they found no evidence of homicide while two autopsies, one performed by a private pathologist hired by Anna Nicole, and one by a Bahamian pathologist, concluded that his death was caused by a lethal "cocktail" of methadone and antidepressants Zoloft and Lexapro, while five other drugs were also found in his system, including those used by the medical personnel in an attempt to revive him.

In its ruling, the jury also said the cause of death was "nondependent use of drugs," meaning that Daniel was not addicted and was not aware the drugs in his system would kill him.

In November 2007, an inquest into his death was ordered amid widespread speculation over the circumstances surrounding his death. It was previously reported that Larry Birkhead, the father of Anna Nicole's 1-year-old daughter Dannielynn, testified that she provided certain drugs to Daniel. According to him, Anna Nicole preferred her son to mess with drugs in her house rather than experiment with friends. Later on however, Birkhead changed his mind about the testimony.

Several months after Daniel’s death, Anna Nicole herself was rushed to the hospital on February 8, after she collapsed in her hotel room, and died shortly after from an overdose of prescription drugs.

According to Associated Press, Anna Nicole's mother, Virgie Arthur was disappointed by the jury's ruling, because she suspected foul play was involved, although she was unable to provide any evidence.

"We don't think it makes any sense," Arthur's lawyer, Neil McCabe said. "The boy was not a drug user, the judge said so. Why would he all of a sudden take a massive dose of methadone?"

Via efluxmedia.com