Revisiting Howard K. Sterns comments to Larry King on Sept 26, 2006

Daniel Wayne Smith Inquiry

CNN LARRY KING LIVE
Interview With Howard K. Stern--excerpts only
Aired September 26, 2006 - 21:00 ET

…KING: You have no doubt in your mind then that it was accidental?

STERN: There's just no way that Daniel would have taken his life, I mean he was so, so excited to come here and see his mom and be with his sister. You know, I talked to him on the car ride when I picked him up from the airport, and I just -- I couldn't fathom that he would have done this intentionally. (inaudible) at this point... Well, he didn't, did he? You have a taped statement that he was not unstable.


…STERN: I was there, yes, I was there. Anna woke me up. This was the next morning now. Stuff happened through the night where, you know, at first I was going to sleep on the floor in between the two beds. There were two hospital beds and Anna was in the bed closest to the window and Daniel was in the bed closest to the door. Two nurses have testified that this was not true. And, Daniel at some point said to me that, you know, he wasn't really that tired, so why didn't I just take the bed and he was going to sit up and watch TV.

And then, at one point Daniel said to me how come I'm so tired? If he had ingested a large amount of methadone, he wouldn't have asked this. He would know why he was tired. And, in hindsight I wish that I had seen that as some sort of a signal and seen that something wasn't right."

KING: So, what happened? Did he just like close -- did he close his eyes or what?

STERN: Well, I mean the next thing that I remember that happened from my perspective is that in the morning Anna said, Howard, Howard, Daniel's not breathing. So I, you know, went over there really quickly. And, at this point Daniel had moved into bed with his mom, so they were actually staying in the same bed. And, I checked Daniel's neck and I didn't feel anything and we called, you know, the nurses…


…KING: Howard, did they have to sedate her right after this?

STERN: Yes, they did. She refused to leave her son. She refused to leave her son. And, you know, the doctors advised us that we should probably check her out of the hospital lets see if any doctors testify to drugging a woman to unconciousness, then having her sent home because the media was going to be coming and it was going to be a, you know, make the whole situation even worse. So, she did have to be sedated in order to leave.

KING: Tragic.

STERN: And she was sedated. And WHO sedated her? Dr Erosivich? She actually doesn't remember that night right now… no, I'd bet she didn't at that point...