Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend and two doctors face a formal arraignment Dec. 11 after a judge found sufficient evidence to try them on charges of conspiring to give Smith prescription drugs.
The ruling Friday in Los Angeles follows a three-week preliminary hearing to determine if there was enough evidence to try Howard K. Stern, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich. All three pleaded not guilty.
If convicted they each could face more than five years in prison.
The hearing delved deeply into Smith's troubled life and the role the defendants allegedly had in feeding her drug addiction before she died of an accidental overdose in 2007.
Prosecutors tried to show the doctors blurred the line between being physicians and friends to the celebrity model.
%@AP Links
Sound:
CUT 311 (10/30/09)>> 00:23 "to an addict"
Rosalie Fox, AP correspondent
AP Correspondent Rosalie Fox reports this is a drug case only and is not about the death of Anna Nicole Smith in 2007.
CUT 310 (10/30/09)>> 00:10 "years in prison"
Rosalie Fox
AP Correspondent Rosalie Fox reports three people who were in Anna Nicole Smith's life have been ordered to stand trial for allegedly giving her large amounts of prescription drugs.
CUT 309 (10/30/09)>> 00:15 "trying to help"
Rosalie Fox
AP Correspondent Rosalie Fox reports Anna Nicole Smith's companion Howard K. Stern and two doctors will be going on trial for illegally providing prescription drugs.
CUT 308 (10/30/09)>> 00:32 ""
Rosalie Fox
There will be a criminal trial in the drug case surrounding the death of Anna Nicole Smith. Details from AP Correspondent Rosalie Fox