SOUTHLAND : Officer Testifies in Brando Case
Marlon Brando’s son said he killed his half-sister’s boyfriend in the actor’s house during a struggle that began when the boyfriend “went nuts,” a police officer testified today.
Christian Brando said the fatal shot was fired accidentally as the two men wrestled over a handgun kept in the actor’s Hollywood Hills mansion for family protection.
“(Christian Brando) said he wasn’t sure who was trying to shoot who,” Officer Steve Cunningham said.
Cunningham was the first witness called at the preliminary hearing to determine whether Brando, 32, will stand trial for murder in the death May 16 of Dag Drollet.
Drollet, 26, son an influential political figure in Tahiti, was the boyfriend of Cheyenne Brando, who recently gave birth to his child in Tahiti.
Marlon Brando watched the testimony from the front row of Municipal Court Judge Larry Fidler’s courtroom. Defense attorneys said the actor--who was at home at the time of the shooting but did not witness it--will not testify at his son’s preliminary hearing.
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