Brando Trial Delay Is Ordered by Court : Murder case: A decision is pending on whether Cheyenne Brando can be forced to testify. She is recovering from drug-induced coma in Tahiti.

The murder trial of Christian Brando, eldest son of Marlon Brando, was postponed indefinitely Friday after an appeals court agreed to decide whether Cheyenne Brando, the key witness and the actor’s daughter, can be compelled to return to Los Angeles to testify.

The ruling came three days before the trial was to begin, and the same day as Cheyenne Brando, 20, emerged from a drug-induced coma after an apparent suicide attempt Thursday. Her father was said to be en route to Tahiti, where she remains in a hospital intensive care ward.

The young woman has become the focus of both legal and emotional concerns in the case, in which Christian Brando, 32, is charged with murdering her lover, Dag Drollet, in the actor’s Mulholland Drive home last May.

“Now the case is secondary,” said defense attorney Robert Shapiro.

He said that his client, Cheyenne’s half-brother, “is very depressed by this, exceedingly depressed. What else can happen? It just is a continuing chain of horrible events for both the Brandos and the Drollets.

“If she does not recover, I can’t imagine proceeding to trial,” Shapiro said. “If she stabilizes, I will have to discuss with Christian if he will be emotionally prepared to go forward with his case. . . . It is possible that the district attorney and I will find a way the case can be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction,” a reference to a still-possible plea bargain.

Friday’s decision by the 2nd District Court of Appeal, the latest twist in prosecutors’ five-month effort to get Cheyenne Brando back, came in response to a request filed before her overdose. She fled to Tahiti last June after telling police that her lover’s death was not accidental, and prosecutors say they need her testimony to prove that the shooting was premeditated and thus murder.

Her brother insists that he did not mean to shoot Drollet. He said that the gun went off during an angry struggle between the two men after Cheyenne told him she had been beaten by her lover while she was pregnant with his son.

Prosecutors, whose efforts have already been rebuffed by both state and federal courts, had asked the state Supreme Court to delay the trial. They also asked that the Superior Court be ordered to formally request help from French authorities in bringing Cheyenne back from Tahiti, where she is charged with complicity in her lover’s death and prevented from leaving.

The high court referred the matter to the appeals court, which agreed to put the trial on hold.

Meanwhile, Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner huddled into the evening with his prosecutors to decide his next move. After two hours of discussions, spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said that because the stay could be lifted Monday, prosecutors are “fully prepared to go to court Monday to begin jury selection.”

The news of Cheyenne Brando’s drug overdose was a fresh upset not only to the Brando family but also to Jacques Drollet, the victim’s father, who had visited his son’s grave this week in observation of All Saints’ Day.

Despite his anger with the Brandos over Dag’s death, he said, “We never wanted anything bad to happen to anyone. Don’t forget that our son loved her very much. In spite of everything, she is the mother of the infant we presume is our son’s child.”

He said he had talked to a Brando family friend, and believes Cheyenne’s overdose was a suicide attempt. “Perhaps the nearness of the trial (date), perhaps too many family difficulties” and the emotion of All Saints’ Day propelled her to it. “It is very hard for everyone who has lost someone,” he said.