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'Sopranos' Star Gets 10 Years in Prison

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posted: 175 DAYS 13 HOURS AGO

comments: 158

filed under: Movie News, TV News, Troublemakers

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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 police officer, but convicted him of attempted burglary. He faced up to 15 years in prison.

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Prosecutors said Brancato and the accomplice were looking for drugs when they broke into an apartment next door to the officer's home. When the officer went to investigate, the accomplice gunned him down.

Steven Armento was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The acquittal in the murder case against Brancato outraged the slain officer's family and the union that represents police officers.

Prosecutors had sought the maximum sentence in the attempted burglary conviction. Brancato has already served three years waiting for his trial, for which he will receive credit.

Brancato rose to fame in 1993's "A Bronx Tale," playing a young kid from the neighborhood who is torn between two worlds and two men: a local mobster played by Chazz Palminteri and his straight-and-narrow bus driver father, played by Robert De Niro.

Other roles followed, most notably a stint on the second season of HBO's "The Sopranos." His character carried out a series of low-level crimes for the New Jersey mob before being gunned down by Tony Soprano and his sidekick as he tearfully begged for his life.

Brancato, 32, and Armento, 48, were drinking together at a strip club before deciding to break into the basement apartment in a hunt for Valium, prosecutors said.

Brancato testified that the break-in never happened. He claimed that he had known the owner, a Vietnam veteran, for several years. He also said he had permission to go inside and take painkillers and other pills whenever he felt like it, and didn't know the man had died earlier that year.

He said the pills were part of a drug problem that began when he was introduced to marijuana on the set of "A Bronx Tale." He later became hooked on crack and heroin.

Brancato told the jury that while suffering from judgment-impairing heroin withdrawals on the night of the shooting, he accidentally broke the kitchen window of the apartment in a desperate attempt to wake up his old pill supplier.

Brancato tried to deflect suggestions by the prosecution that his testimony - at times punctuated by vignettes about his drug-crazed downfall - was another acting job.

His lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, said Brancato wanted to turn his life around.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

Copyright 2008, Reuters

2009-01-09 12:31:48

Dan Steinberg, AP

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MIKE THE GENT

07:45 PMJan 11 2009

Once a JUNKIE....Always a JUNKIE.This loser wont last ten yrs in prison.Even if he gets out in 5 ,he will do something stupid in which he will Overdose or get into another burglary in which this time this stupid (expletive) probably will have a gun on him....

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Mosron

03:39 PMJan 10 2009

Planxan2, leave it to a liberal tard to bring politics into it.

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Mosron

03:35 PMJan 10 2009

AmbExec1, what is a "stuip cop"?

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BucsTim25

01:44 PMJan 10 2009

He must have thought he was still on the Soprano's. What an idiot. I hate people like him who think they are above the law. Check this out if you like TV: www.sentinelvideoltd.com

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Emerald beer 1

08:33 AMJan 10 2009

what a sad pathetic life, father son, and other members of family,too bad people have money and just cannot put it to good use, NOT THAT DRUGGIES ARE BAD, Seems like that is the new way to live your life, even if your a lower life and have to steal and kill!!! GOD BLESS THIS WORLD!

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TXsirboss2

08:12 AMJan 10 2009

AmbExec1 11:19 PMJan 10 2009 What a joke to sentence the guy to 10 years because a stuip cop was killed. Was was even a bigger joke was the 300 cops that showed up to stare the guy down while in their uniform. Someone shpuld have ran by and slapped those idiots in the face for this behavior. They should all be fired in my opinion.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>Well Spoken SAMBO, What color is Shiit, so whats that make you full of!!!!

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PlanXan2

06:20 AMJan 10 2009

ROCKIS1084 wrote, "Lillo you P.O.S once a junkie always a junkie ......." ___________ YOU MEAN LIKE RUSH LIMBAUGH, RIGHT?

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Tgiovangelo

11:45 PMJan 10 2009

HEY SMOKEROOM YOUR A PIECE OF SH*T NO GOOD SON OF A B*TCH YOU TALK LIKE THAT AGAIN AND I WILL SLAP THE SH*T OUT OF YOU AND YOUR RACIST FAMILY GO FORK YOURSELF A**HOLE

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Chewwwy2

11:40 PMJan 10 2009

AmbExec1 - You sound just as stupid as the defendent!!!! You POS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Chewwwy2