DA Charges Brando’s Son With Murder

Marlon Brando’s 32-year-old son, who is accused of killing his pregnant half-sister’s boyfriend at the actor’s mountaintop home, was charged with murder today.

Christian Brando, a self-employed welder and artist, is held without bail in connection with the death of Dag Drollet, 26, a guest at the sprawling, three-house estate on Mulholland Drive. He was the son of a well-known official in Papeete, the Tahitian capital.

Brando was arraigned this afternoon in West Los Angeles Municipal Court on the murder charge, as well as one felony count each of illegally possessing an assault rifle and possession of a silencer. He was brought to court in handcuffs from the West Los Angeles jail for the arraignment.

The district attorney’s office announced the charges before the arraignment.

Drollet, shot and killed in the den of one house, reportedly was the expectant father of 20-year-old Cheyenne Brando’s unborn child. Police said the mother-to-be may have been “slapped around,” an apparently isolated incident that may have triggered the shooting.

The woman, who has done some fashion modeling in Tahiti and reportedly came to Los Angeles about three weeks ago with Drollet, is believed to be about six months pregnant. Police said she showed no signs of injury.

She is Marlon Brando’s daughter by his current wife, Tarita Teriipia, a Tahitian woman who played his lover in the 1962 film version of “Mutiny on the Bounty.”

Authorities said Drollet, whose ancestors reportedly came to Tahiti from Denmark, was shot once in the head with a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol, which was recovered.

Marlon Brando, who reportedly tried to revive Drollet with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and phoned 911 Wednesday night to request an ambulance, was distraught when authorities arrived.

The 66-year-old actor urged police to take away all of his son’s guns, including the presumed murder weapon, a .44-caliber carbine and two unregistered automatic weapons--an Uzi submachine-gun and an M-14 rifle.