NEW YORK (Jan. 9) - Lillo Brancato Jr., the 'Bronx Tale' and 'Sopranos' actor who found himself in real life trouble after a botched New York City burglary in which an off-duty police officer was killed, has been sentenced to 10 years in jail.
A jury acquitted Lillo Brancato Jr. in the death of the policeofficer, but convicted him of attempted burglary. He faced up to 15years in prison.
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Celebrity Troublemakers
'Three's Company' star Joyce DeWitt was arrested for allegedly driving under the influence on the Fourth of July in California.
Jamie McCarthy, WireImage
Jamie McCarthy, WireImage
Prosecutors said Brancato and the accomplice were looking fordrugs when they broke into an apartment next door to the officer'shome. When the officer went to investigate, the accomplice gunnedhim down.
Steven Armento was convicted of first-degree murder and wassentenced to life in prison without parole.
The acquittal in the murder case against Brancato outraged theslain officer's family and the union that represents policeofficers.
Prosecutors had sought the maximum sentence in the attemptedburglary conviction. Brancato has already served three yearswaiting for his trial, for which he will receive credit.
Brancato rose to fame in 1993's "A Bronx Tale," playing ayoung kid from the neighborhood who is torn between two worlds andtwo men: a local mobster played by Chazz Palminteri and hisstraight-and-narrow bus driver father, played by Robert De Niro.
Other roles followed, most notably a stint on the second seasonof HBO's "The Sopranos." His character carried out a series oflow-level crimes for the New Jersey mob before being gunned down byTony Soprano and his sidekick as he tearfully begged for his life.
Brancato, 32, and Armento, 48, were drinking together at a stripclub before deciding to break into the basement apartment in a huntfor Valium, prosecutors said.
Brancato testified that the break-in never happened. He claimedthat he had known the owner, a Vietnam veteran, for several years.He also said he had permission to go inside and take painkillersand other pills whenever he felt like it, and didn't know the manhad died earlier that year.
He said the pills were part of a drug problem that began when hewas introduced to marijuana on the set of "A Bronx Tale." Helater became hooked on crack and heroin.
Brancato told the jury that while suffering fromjudgment-impairing heroin withdrawals on the night of the shooting,he accidentally broke the kitchen window of the apartment in adesperate attempt to wake up his old pill supplier.
Brancato tried to deflect suggestions by the prosecution thathis testimony - at times punctuated by vignettes about hisdrug-crazed downfall - was another acting job.
His lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, said Brancato wanted to turn hislife around.
