Bail Request for Brando’s Son Denied by Judge : Slaying: Actor says ‘messenger of misery has come.’ Suspect acknowledged he was drinking at time of shooting.

Marlon Brando sat stone-faced in the front row of a courtroom as a judge Tuesday declared his son, Christian, ineligible for bail on charges of murdering his pregnant half-sister’s boyfriend.

At a news conference after the hearing in West Los Angeles Municipal Court, defense attorney William Kunstler, a long-time friend of the actor, railed against what he called an “outrageous decision” by Judge Rosemary Shumsky. During the hearing, the attorney had said he was prepared to seek a bail amount as high as $1.25 million.

“I think she made up her mind before she got here,” Kunstler said. “She misused her power.”

After the decision, Marlon Brando, flanked by his wife, Tarita, told reporters: “The messenger of misery has come to my house, and has also come to the house of Mr. Jack Drollet in Tahiti,” referring to the father of victim Dag Drollet.

“To those people who have known these kinds of tragic circumstances in the world, no explanation is necessary,” the portly actor continued. “To those people who do not know the nature of this acute misery that both our families suffer, no explanation is possible.”

He added: “We must just be strong and I think that the family, with love and supporting each other, will prevail.”

Christian Brando, 32, was arrested last Wednesday night in the shooting death of Drollet, 26, after confronting the victim in Marlon Brando’s 12-room house in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Drollet was accused by the younger Brando of beating his 20-year-old half-sister, Cheyenne Brando, moments before a single fatal shot was fired from about an inch away, police said.

Drollet was found reclining on a couch with a bullet wound in his left cheek. In his left hand was a cigarette lighter, police said.

Christian Brando has pleaded innocent to one count of murder, one count of illegal possession of an assault rifle and one count of illegal possession of a silencer.

A police report filed with the court said his blood alcohol level was 0.19%--more than twice California’s legal limit of intoxication for motorists. In statements to police, the suspect, a part-time welder, acknowledged that he was intoxicated at the time of the shooting.

“We were both in a fit of rage, and the (expletive) gun went off,” Christian Brando told officers, according to the report. “It’s my fault because I had a loaded gun in the house. I had a few drinks in me. We struggled and blewey--he’s dead.”

At Tuesday’s hearing, the defendant, clad in a jail jumpsuit, sat hunched over the defense table.

Kunstler and two other defense attorneys presented the judge with 18 declarations from Christian Brando’s friends, relatives and supporters--including actor Jack Nicholson, who lives in the three-home hilltop complex that includes Marlon Brando’s residence.

Each of the attorneys, in turn, described the defendant as a caring, hard-working and trustworthy man who posed no threat to the public and would not flee if released on bail.

“Jack Nicholson says he (Brando) has always been a hard worker . . . and trusts him implicitly,” said defense attorney Daniel Stormer.

Tommy Taylor, 14, a student at John Burroughs Junior High School in Los Angeles, recalled the time he and the defendant found an injured opossum. “We took it home to nurse it back to health, but it died the next day,” he said. “Christian was very upset.”

In pleading for bail, Kunstler’s associate, Ron Kuby, acknowledged that Christian Brando “has had a drinking problem.”

“He’s been to detox programs on at least two occasions in the past,” Kuby said. “And he is more than willing to go through any kind of detox program.”

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Steven Barshop argued that Brando was indeed a flight risk in what he called a “no bail case.”

“The defendant went to a residence and got a murder weapon,” Barshop said. “The decedent was seated . . . holding in one hand . . . a BIC lighter, negating any theory whatsoever of a struggle.”

“This case is criminal homicide,” Barshop added. “This case, for the purposes of the bail motion, is first degree murder.”

After hearing 45 minutes of arguments, Shumsky dismissed the bail motion, saying “the court finds there is no basis for setting bail in this case.”

Police reports indicate the incident occurred after Christian Brando went out for dinner with his sister and discussed her relationship with her boyfriend. On the way home, he stopped at a girlfriend’s house and picked up a .45 caliber handgun. Later, with the pistol in hand, he confronted the victim about the alleged beating of his sister and a struggle ensued for control of the gun.

In a rambling, often contradictory statement to police, Christian Brando explained:

“We were rolling around on the couch. He was beating my pregnant sister. It was a (expletive) accident. I told him to let go. He had my hands. Then bloom. Jesus, man, it wasn’t murder. He was trying to shoot me. I don’t know who was trying to shoot who. He grabbed me and the (expletive) thing shot him in the head . . .

“Please believe me, I wouldn’t do it in my father’s house.”

But police investigator Andy Monsue said there was no sign of a struggle and added that “we have additional evidence not disclosed in the police report.”

Marlon Brando, his wife and daughter were home but did not witness the shooting, police said. Moments after the shooting, Christian Brando walked into the living room with the gun and told his father that Drollet had been shot. The actor dialed 911 and told his son to wait for police.

Marlon Brando, according to police, said that his son had “always had a very bad temper and could be explosively violent when angry.” The actor also said that he did not believe his daughter had been abused by Drollet. The allegations, Brando said, “were totally false and, in fact, the victim had been extremely nice to his daughter.”

Brando further explained to police that his daughter has been suffering “psychological problems” since being involved in a serious traffic accident. Cheyenne had made numerous unfounded allegations against family members, and was undergoing psychiatric treatment, Brando told police.

Christian Brando was ordered to return to court June 11 to schedule a preliminary hearing.