Myrtle Beach witness offers Anna Nicole Smith twist

LOS ANGELES -- A witness from Myrtle Beach in the Anna Nicole Smith drug conspiracy trial recanted suggestions Friday that he saw defendant Howard K. Stern force drugs on the celebrity model.

Ford Shelley also testified that he never saw Smith abuse drugs, and that he believed her boyfriend-lawyer Stern shouldn't be on trial.

Shelley, whose family became entangled with Smith, was a combative prosecution witness.

"Mr. Shelley, you don't want to be here testifying, do you?" Deputy District Attorney Renee Rose asked.

"No, because I don't think the man ought to be sitting here," Shelley said, looking at Stern across the courtroom.

Shelley had previously suggested to investigators that Stern overmedicated Smith.

However, he said Friday he had been mad many of the times he had been interviewed since the death of Smith.

Stern, Eroshevich and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor have pleaded not guilty to providing Smith with excessive drugs and other charges.

Smith died of a drug overdose in 2007. The defendants are not charged in her death.

Shelley described Eroshevich as a good woman who was trying to help Smith.

Shelley wept on the witness stand after he was asked to describe Smith's condition after the 2006 death of her son Daniel.

"Not good," Shelley said hoarsely. "Bad shape. She'd lost her son. I saw Anna grieving."

Shelley said he saw Stern give Smith medication once and that she "went to la-la land" after that. He also said he saw her take medicine on her own.

Even in grief, Smith "was the boss. ... She was adamant about what she wanted," he said.

Attorney Brad Brunon, who represents Eroshevich, asked Shelley to describe the psychiatrist's relationship with Smith.

"A very loving, caring friend," he testified.

Shelley befriended Smith when his father-in-law, Myrtle Beach developer G. Ben Thompson, dated her. Thompson later allowed her and her longtime companion, Howard K. Stern, to move into a house he owned in the Bahamas.

When given the subpoena to testify in the case, Shelley said in August that he told investigators in the case he had no knowledge of Smith's demeanor.

"We were not a party to any of those things," Shelley said at the Horry County courthouse.

McClatchy Newspapers contributed to this report.