Defense shows jury idyllic photos taken during Anna Nicole Smith’s final months

Pictures show last months of Anna Nicole Smith

LOS ANGELES — Suggesting pictures are more powerful than words, the defense in the Anna Nicole Smith drug conspiracy case put on a slide show for jurors Friday of 90 photos depicting the last five months of the former Playboy model’s life.

With defense lawyers planning to call no witnesses after the prosecution rests its case Monday, the photos were their only evidence, designed to show Smith was not impaired by drugs as witnesses have testified.

The photographs, many of them taken by defendant Howard K. Stern, suggest an idyllic time for the blonde beauty beginning with the birth of her baby, Dannielynn, on Sept. 6, 2007, and continuing through Jan. 28, 2007, little more than a week before she died.

The prosecution entered two less flattering photos as evidence.

Except for a few shots of Smith in heavy mourning veil and black dress for her son’s funeral, the photos presented by the defense reflected joyous scenes.

The images included Smith feeding a bottle to her baby, posing the tiny girl in huge sunglasses and sitting with Stern and the baby in family portraits.

Smith died in Florida on Feb. 7, 2007, of a viral infection and an overdose of nine different drugs.

Stern, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, a psychiatrist, have pleaded not guilty to providing Smith excessive opiates and sedatives. They are not charged in her death.

The prosecution’s final witness, who was to conclude his testimony Monday, was Dr. Tim Botello, a psychiatrist who said he knew of no medical reason that a treating psychiatrist would have for giving Smith the multiple drugs she was prescribed.