Court Of Appeals
A three-judge appeals panel expressed doubts about burying Anna Nicole Smith in Texas, as her mother wants, but also questioned how the advocate in charge of funeral plans knew Smith intended to be laid to rest in the Bahamas. The judges ended the hearing without indicating when they would rule. Two members of the panel, however, said Smith’s purchase of burial plots in the Bahamas suggested a desire to be taken there.”Why wouldn’t that be written evidence?” Judge Mark Polen asked the attorney for Smith’s mother, Virgie Arthur. Arthur had challenged a circuit judge’s decision last week to give control of Smith’s burial to the court-appointed advocate for Smith’s infant daughter. Arthur’s lawyer, Roberta Mandel, argued to the appeals court that the mother is the legal next of kin. Appeals Judge Barry Stone asked the advocate’s attorney, Christopher Carver, how his client could figure out what a 5-month-old baby wanted. Carver said the advocate, Richard Milstein, considered Smith’s wishes to be buried in the Bahamas next to her 20-year-old son Daniel, who died there last year.”Anna Nicole Smith buried the person she loved most of all in the Bahamas,” Carver said. Carver said if the court rules against Arthur, Smith’s funeral would take place Friday in the Bahamas. But Mandel has said she would appeal to the state Supreme Court. Attorneys for Smith’s boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, argued in court papers that Arthur was trying to “place her in death where she never wanted to be in life”, in Texas. Smith died Feb. 8, but her body has remained at a medical examiners office because of the dispute.
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