Brando's son invokes fifth in Blake civil trial.

Christian Brando, the son of actor Marlon Brando, took the witness stand Tuesday in Robert Blake's civil trial but declined to answer key questions to protect himself from possible self-incrimination.

Brando's lawyer, Bruce Margolin, stood next to him at the witness box and repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment on behalf of his client.

Brando, 46, has been a key figure in the case surrounding the murder of Blake's wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. Blake's lawyers have pointed at him as a possible suspect in the slaying. Brando has not been arrested or charged.

On the witness stand, Brando answered only a few questions, giving his name and birth date and identifying his voice on two tape recordings of phone conversations with Bakley.

"At any time did you meet an individual named Bonny Bakley?" Blake attorney Peter Ezzell asked.

"Yes," said Brando, who then invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked for more details of their relationship.

"Did you become aware that Bonny Bakley had taped her conversations with you?" Ezzell asked.

"No," Brando said.

The attorney then played brief snippets from the tapes, and Brando said it was his voice along with Bakley's. He refused to answer a question about his comment on the tape telling Bakley: "You're lucky somebody ain't out there to put a bullet in your head."

He also declined to answer questions about whether he hired someone to kill Bakley, if she told him she feared Blake was going to kill her, or if she offered Brando sex with her 17-year old daughter.

Superior Court Judge David M. Schacter allowed Brando to invoke the Fifth Amendment on certain questions but not on others. He was ordered to respond to questions about whether he ever lived in the state of Washington and if he had ever visited a certain street in Los Angeles.

Brando did testify that he had served five years in prison for manslaughter in the death of his sister's boyfriend, Dag Drollet.

As he left the courthouse, Brando was asked whether he had any idea who may have killed Bakley. He shrugged smiled and said, "probably sitting up in the room there," an apparent reference to the courtroom.

Margolin, his lawyer, said Brando invoked Fifth Amendment protection because "he didn't want to take part in this charade that somehow implies he's involved in this matter.... He would prefer to have nothing to do with this matter."

Blake is being sued for wrongful death by the family of Bakley. The star of the old "Baretta" TV show was found not guilty of murder in a criminal trial that ended earlier this year.

Blake did not testify during that trial but spent seven days on the witness stand in the civil case discussing his relationship with Bakley and other matters.

After heating the limited testimony from Brando, jurors in the civil trial left on a bus trip to Vitello's restaurant, where Blake and his wife dined the night she was shot to death.

Later in day, Brando returned to the witness stand. Eric Dubin, the lawyer for Bakley's family, tried to get him to repeat the remark made outside court but Brando again invoked the Fifth Amendment and the judge did not force him to answer.

Brando left the courtroom after Blake's lawyer concluded playing tape recordings of his conversations with Bakley.

The tapes, which have been played publicly before, include discussions in which Brando expresses exasperation with Bakley, who was claiming at one point that the baby she was carrying was fathered by Brando.

The child actually belonged to Blake.