The focus of the legal fallout from the death of Anna Nicole Smith has shifted from Florida to the Bahamas, where the former model's ex-boyfriend, mother and partner planned to battle for custody of her daughter before the nation's Supreme Court.Legal experts predict Larry Birkhead, the ex-boyfriend who claims to have fathered Smith's daughter, will face a difficult challenge persuading a Bahamian judge to award him custody because Howard K. Stern, the former model's partner, is listed on the birth certificate as the father. A hearing was scheduled for Monday.
"There is a very strong legal presumption that what is stated in that document is accurate," said Thomas A. E. Evans, a prominent Bahamas attorney.
Birkhead, a Los Angeles-based photographer, also must contend with a competing claim from Virgie Arthur, Smith's mother, who has claimed she could provide a more stable home for Dannielynn than Stern and should therefore be awarded custody of the girl — who could inherit a fortune.
"We're ready to fight," a lawyer for the ex-boyfriend, Debra Opri, told reporters outside Nassau international airport shortly after arriving Sunday with her client.