Celebrity Celebrity Deaths Celebrity Death News Anna Nicole Shut Out By Stephen M. Silverman Stephen M. Silverman Stephen M. Silverman is the former founding editor of PEOPLE.com. He left PEOPLE in 2015. People Editorial Guidelines Published on September 16, 1997 12:00AM EDT Former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith, 33, was left high and dry in a Houston, Texas, court on Wednesday, as jurors found that her late 90-year-old husband never promised her half of his billion-dollar fortune, reports Reuters. (Smith has already been awarded $475 million by a California court.) The jury ruled that younger son Pierce Marshall was the sole heir to J. Howard Marshall II’s oil fortune and neither Smith nor older brother Howard Marshall III held any claim to it. The jurors also ordered the elder brother to pay Pierce $35 million in damages and legal fees, which reportedly would wipe out Marshall III’s personal fortune. Smith and Marshall III’s attorneys vow to appeal.