A fight over Anna Nicole Smith’s burial

Anna Nicole Smith wanted to be buried next to her son in the Bahamas and bought two burial plots for their final resting places, Howard K. Stern, the former Playboy Playmate’s last companion, told a Florida court Tuesday.

In his first court appearance since Smith died Feb. 8, Stern sat in the witness chair in front of photographer Larry Birkhead, Smith’s former lover, who also claims to be the father of her 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn. Stern is listed on the birth certificate as the child’s father.

Arguing that knowing the father would help unravel the complicated legal skein in Florida, Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin offered to take jurisdiction over the paternity issues pending in California, but his effort was rejected Tuesday morning.

That still left the issue of where to bury the embalmed body of Smith to be decided in the Fort Lauderdale courtroom.

Stern is asking the court to allow Smith to be buried near her dead son in the Bahamas. Smith’s mother, Vergie Arthur, is contesting the request, arguing that her daughter should be buried in her native Texas.

Stern described how Smith originally wanted to be buried near Marilyn Monroe in Los Angeles. But that desire changed when Smith discovered the Bahamas last summer.

“Anna was very firm that the Bahamas was her home,” Stern said. “It was where she wanted to raise Dannielynn. She was very firm.”

The desire to be in the Bahamas increased after Smith’s son, Daniel, died of an apparent drug overdose on Sept. 10, Stern said.

“Anna always thought she was going to die young. She asked me to look at plots in the Bahamas,” Stern said.

Lawyers representing Smith’s mother repeatedly rejected Stern’s testimony, arguing that there was no way to know whether Smith had said the things Stern claimed. In addition to the testimony being hearsay, they contended, it didn’t deal with what they said was the real issue: the mother’s claim to be entitled to decide the fate of Smith’s body.

Tuesday’s hearing began cordially but soon became contentious over the paternity issue. The question of fatherhood is even more pressing because Smith’s estate could total hundreds of millions of dollars, depending on court action involving her claims that she was entitled to part of the fortune of a Texas oil tycoon to whom she was married for 14 months.

The paternity issue continued to be litigated in Los Angeles on Tuesday. At a closed-door hearing, Superior Court Judge Robert A. Schnider denied a request by Birkhead’s lawyer, Debra Opri, to assert emergency jurisdiction over Dannielynn, who is in the Bahamas, said lawyer James Neavitt, who represents Stern.

Schnider did ask Florida officials to allow Birkhead’s expert to test DNA taken last week from Smith’s remains, the lawyer said. Schnider last week withdrew his request for Smith’s body to be preserved in Florida after authorities insisted there was enough material for DNA tests.

As a precaution, however, Seidlin last week ordered that more DNA material be gathered and allowed all of the lawyers to be present to ensure there would be no dispute over the chain of evidence in the expected paternity cases.

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michael.muskal@latimes.com

Times staff writer Charles Proctor contributed to this report.