By BIANCA SYMONETTE, Guardian Staff Reporter, bianca@nasguard.com

The inquest into the death of Daniel Smith, the 20-year-old son of the late actress and model Anna Nicole Smith, resumed on Monday. Larry Birkhead, father of Anna Nicole's one-year-old daughter Dannielynn, took the witness stand and gave evidence indicating that Daniel had stolen a bottle of methadone from his mother's medications.

According to Anna Nicole's former lover, during the Easter weekend in April 2006, Anna Nicole noticed that a bottle of her methadone medication was missing, after she returned from spending a few days in a hotel in California. Birkhead said Daniel was the only one at home at the time, but he denied taking the medication.

"Anna did not believe that he was telling the truth, so we reviewed the home security tape and observed Daniel moving the methadone. Anna told Daniel she saw the tape with him taking it, but Daniel still did not admit to moving it," Birkhead said.

He added that Daniel had two friends over when the incident happened, and after he searched the lower level of the house where Daniel stayed, he observed alcohol bottles in the garbage and stated that it appeared as if 'someone had a party'.

Milton Evans, the attorney of Virgie Arthur, Anna Nicole's mother, attempted to give another reason why the methadone went missing in the home. Evans asked Birkhead if he had taken medication from Anna Nicole to prevent her from using it, and he responded yes.

Evans pointed out that while Daniel took the bottle of medication, the tape never revealed him consuming the medication, therefore the attorney suggested that Daniel may have moved the medication to prevent his mother from taking it.

But during the inquest, Birkhead also testified that on one occasion during a Thanksgiving holiday and during a party, he observed Daniel taking a pill which he was later identified by someone as being a type of ecstasy. According to Birkhead, Daniel's behavior changed after taking the pill. He said Daniel became talkative and started touching persons sitting next to him.

Birkhead said he also observed Daniel in May 2006 drinking alcohol and noted he had lost about 20 pounds after he started associating with some new friends which his mother did not approve.

Birkhead testified in Coroner's court that he came to know Anna Nicole in May 2003 but did not start a personal relationship with her until a year later. Birkhead said he lived with the actress and model for several months and was able to observe that Daniel had gone from a shy individual, to a young man that disobeyed rules set by his mother.

"When we traveled for appearances with his mom he would play video games. He was basically a good kid," Birkhead said in his testimony.

According to him, Anna Nicole started to have trouble with her son in 2006 when Daniel started hanging with his new friends. He added that it was at this point that Anna Nicole suspected her son may be consuming alcohol and drugs.

During attorney Evans' questioning of Birkhead, he revealed that on one occasion Anna Nicole had given Daniel methadone for back pain. He stated that he did not know it was methadone at the time.

Birkhead further claimed that Anna Nicole gave Daniel a pill one time at a party and gave others at the party the same pill, however, he did not know what type of pill it was.

In a statement written by Birkhead for American police, Birkhead had said that he observed Daniel using marijuana, but at the inquest Birkhead said he did not recall whether Daniel had smoked marijuana. He acknowledged that he had no evidence of Daniel taking drugs and while he observed him taking pills he could not say for sure if they were illegal drugs.

He did, however, indicate that he observed Anna Nicole taking prescribed drugs, up to ten tablets at a time. Birkhead said he was concerned about the amount of pills she was taking, because she was pregnant with his child at the time.

Daniel died from an overdose of methadone on September 10, 2006 at Doctors Hospital, while visiting his mother and baby half-sister Dannielynn.

When the inquest resumes today, the final three witnesses are scheduled to take the stand. The last witness will be Howard Stern, Anna Nicole's attorney turned companion.