Cheyenne Brando Not Competent, Court Rules : Murder case: Tahiti decision dims prosecution’s hopes for her testimony about brother’s role in the death of her lover.

Marlon Brando’s daughter, Cheyenne, has been declared mentally incompetent by a French court in Tahiti, dimming prosecutors’ hopes of calling her as their star witness in the upcoming murder trial of her brother, Christian.

Although the trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 14, this latest development increases the likelihood of a plea-bargain agreement. Defense attorney Robert Shapiro has said from the outset that a guilty plea to a reduced charge of manslaughter would be appropriate, but sources close to the case say that Deputy Dist. Atty. Steven Barshop wants to exhaust all efforts to bring the young woman back to Los Angeles before deciding whether to take the case to trial.

“We’ve taken the position all along that our trial will go forward with or without Cheyenne . . . (but) both sides know she is a very material witness,� Barshop said.

Cheyenne Brando’s mother, Tarita, was appointed as her guardian Thursday, after a judge reviewed a psychiatrist’s report as well as evaluations by doctors who treated Cheyenne during five recent hospitalizations and two suicide attempts. She remains hospitalized after attempting to hang herself from a tree last month.

“She was placed yesterday under conservatorship,� her attorney, Michael Nasatir, told Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Joel Rudof Friday. “She has been declared incompetent to handle her own affairs� or to care for her newborn son.

Rudof issued a tentative ruling that he will sign a letter asking French authorities to cooperate in returning her to California. Armed with the letter, prosecutors say they could then serve her with a federal subpoena and, if she did not appear as ordered, seize up to $100,000 in her U.S. assets.

Even if the legal obstacles are cleared and she wants to testify, the final decision would rest with her mother, as her guardian.

Prosecutors said they are still awaiting the results of a psychiatric examination ordered by a French magistrate in connection with charges against her in Tahiti for being an accessory to the murder of her lover, Dag Drollet.

“There’s a difference between a civil conservatorship and a competent witness to testify in a court--a lot of legal distinctions,� said Barshop, explaining why he is pressing on in light of her being declared incompetent.

Drollet was shot to death by her half-brother, Christian Brando, last May 16 at the Brando family’s hilltop estate in Bel-Air. Christian Brando maintains that the shooting was an accident; Cheyenne Brando, who had gone to dinner with him the night of the shooting, told police it was murder.