Marlon Brando's son was freed from state prison Wednesday after serving nearly five years for killing the boyfriend of his half-sister.
Christian Brando, 37, was released just after midnight from the California Men's Colony in this community 180 miles northwest of Los Angeles, said prison spokeswoman Terri Knight.The exact time of his release was not announced earlier because Brando said he wanted to avoid press attention.
"He did not want to be released from prison into a throng of media," said Tip Kindel, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections in Sacramento.
Brando was picked up by a private citizen, Knight said, but she did not know whether it was a member of the Brando family.
Brando will be on parole for three years and cannot leave Los Angeles County without the written permission of his parole officer.
While imprisoned, he was involved in a vocational education machine shop and earned a high school equivalency degree.
Brando pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the May 16, 1990, shooting of Dag Drollet, 26, boyfriend of Cheyenne Brando, at Marlon Brando's Mulholland Drive hilltop estate. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Feb. 28, 1991.
Brando claimed Drollet died accidentally in a struggle. He said he was angry with Drollet for allegedly beating his pregnant half-sister, who later gave birth to Drollet's son, Tookie.
Cheyenne Brando hanged herself on April 16, 1995. She was 25. Drollet's parents are raising their grandchild in Tahiti.