This has been ongoing for sometime, but a sentence was finally handed down.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/09/sopranos.actor/
Quote:
An actor who played a wannabe mobster in The Sopranos was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for a botched burglary that left an off-duty New York police officer dead. The Bronx County District Attorneys Office had sought the maximum of 15 years for Lillo Brancato Jr., who was convicted last month of attempted burglary stemming from a fatal encounter with police officer Daniel Enchautegui. Before the sentencing, Enchautegui's sister addressed the court to deliver a victim impact statement. Enchautegui, 28, was shot in the chest when he interrupted an alleged break-in at a neighbor's home in the Bronx but managed to shoot both suspects multiple times before dying. Brancato was cleared in Enchautegui's death, but his accomplice, Steven Armento, 51, was convicted in the shooting and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. During the trial, lawyers for Brancato argued that there was not a break-in. Brancato testified that he knew the owner of the home, a Vietnam veteran who had given him permission to enter the house and take painkillers or other pills whenever he wanted. Brancato testified that he and Armento, 51, were drinking at a strip club when they decided to go hunt for valium. He admitted breaking a window at the home but said it was strictly because he was going through intense heroin withdrawal that night and was trying to wake up his friend to get drugs. Brancato appeared on six episodes of the hit HBO series The Sopranos in 2000. As a teen, he starred alongside actor Robert De Niro in A Bronx Tale. |
