SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif., Jan. 10 -- Christian Brando, the son of legendary actor Marlon Brando, was released from prison Wednesday after serving less than five years for linling his half sister's boyfriend. Brando, 37, was released from the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obisposhortly after midnight, prison spokeswoman Terri Knight said.
He will be on parole for three years. Brando was sentenced in February 1991 to 10 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter for the May 1990 shooting death of his Cheyenne Brando's boyfriend, Dag Drollet, in Marlon Brando's Hollywood Hills home. Christian claimed the gun went off during a struggle, and he accused Drollet of beating his half sister, who was pregnant at the time. Cheyenne, who initially accused her brother of deliberately shooting her Tahitian lover, suffered a nervous breakdown and fled to Tahiti. A French court declared her incompetent and refused to order her to return to the United States. Prosecutors, who had initially sought a murder charge against Brando, reduced the charge to manslaughter without her testimony. Cheyenne, 25, committed suicide at her mother's home in Tahiti last April. While in prison, Brando earned a general equivalency diploma, the same as a high school diploma, and was involved in the prison's vocational machine shop program, Knight said. He was released from prison early because of good behavior and work credits, Knight said. Marlon Brando's film career spans more than 45 years and includes 'A Streetcar Named Desire,' 'The Wild One,' 'On the Waterfront,' 'The Last Tango in Paris,' 'Don Juan DeMarco' and 'The Godfather,' for which he was given his second best actor Oscar in 1972.
