Posted on 12/29/2005 9:01:37 AM PST by presidio9
A young "Sopranos" actor accused in the slaying of an off-duty police officer said in a jailhouse interview he's sorry and didn't know his alleged burglary accomplice was carrying a gun.
Lillo Brancato Jr., who appeared opposite Robert De Niro "A Bronx Tale" and more recently was in several episodes of "The Sopranos," was charged with murder and other counts in the Dec. 10 shooting of Daniel Enchautegui during a gunfight.
He told the New York Post in an interview published Thursday that he wept while reading a newspaper account of Enchautegui's funeral.
"When I saw the picture of his father, it brought tears to my eyes because he looked like one of those old-fashioned men — kind of like my father," Brancato said. "I also thought that could have been my father going to my funeral."
Enchautegui, 28, was shot after he heard Brancato, 29, and another man, Steven Armento, breaking into a basement apartment in the Bronx, authorities said. Before he died, Enchautegui wounded both suspects.
Brancato, who acknowledges problems with drugs and alcohol, said he was unaware Armento was carrying a weapon when they left a strip club to break into the apartment and steal prescription drugs. Authorities identified Armento, 48, as the gunman in the slaying.
"If I would have known, I wouldn't have allowed him in my car," Brancato said. "Imagine, we get pulled over and I get caught with an armed felon in my car. Since I've been in the movies, it would have instantly drawn attention."
Brancato said he might take the witness stand at trial to tell the jury "how horrible I feel about my stupidity."
"If I had the chance, I would want to meet his family and look them in the face and tell then how sorry I feel about what happened," he said.
Brancato was still in his teens when he played De Niro's son in "A Bronx Tale" in 1993. He appeared on six episodes of "The Sopranos" during the 1999-2000 season as a wannabe mobster who was killed by boss Tony Soprano.
Lorenzo(De Niro): The saddest thing in life is wasted talent.
snip
De Niro, who directed and starred in the 1993 film "A Bronx Tale," cast a previously unknown 17-year-old Brancato to play his son.
Brancato used his role in the movie to woo Yonkers beauty Stefanie Armento - the daughter of his .accused murder accomplice Steven Armento, her mother told the Daily News.
"He would tell her, 'I was in "A Bronx Tale." I can show you what life is like,' " said Donna Nelson, Stefanie's mother and Steven Armento's ex-wife.
"She can't help but be in love with him."
But the Fordham University premed student soon realized Brancato was slipping into a life of drugs and broke up with him after six months, Nelson said.
Brancato, however, apparently wouldn't take "no" for an answer. Stefanie Armento, 20, changed her cell phone three times amid his persistence, the mom said.
Last week, he threw a lighted cigarette in Stephanie's face, the mother added. Despite the turmoil, Steven Armento, 48, remained buddies with the actor. "Steven and Lillo were two of a kind with partying and drugs," Nelson said.
http://tinyurl.com/7zaq6
Steven Armento, 48, was a low-level Genovese crime family associate until he was banished for drug addiction, authorities said.
“A lot of the people Lillo was hanging out with didn’t have his best interest at heart,” said Brancato’s manger, Garianno Lorenzo. “They were out to take advantage of him. Lillo only did harm to himself, with drugs. Never to someone else.”
******
According to authorities, the actor and the older man were drinking together at the Crazy Horse Cabaret strip club in the Bronx before deciding early Saturday to break into a basement apartment nearby and steal some Valium. Armento carried a .357 Smith & Wesson handgun; Brancato was not armed, police said.
snip
Two days before the shooting, Brancato was ticketed for disorderly conduct after his ex-girlfriend’s twin sister summoned police. When officers arrived, Brancato was sitting in the middle of the street. “Don’t you know who I am?!” he screamed.
http://tinyurl.com/8peos
Brancato, now 29, and a second suspect, Steven Armento, 48,
had tried to rob the apartment of a Vietnam veteran who had lived next door
An NYPD source said a search of the home of suspect Steven Armento turned up a prescription-drug vial bearing the name of the apartment's last tenant.
Steven Armento, was too fat to wiggle into the apartment window that he had broken, the sources said.
Armento, 48, a former Genovese associate, and Brancato, 29, spent Friday night and early Saturday boozing it up at the Crazy Horse, a Bronx strip club, the sources said.
Armento pulled out his father's old .357-magnum revolver and fired two shots, striking the officer in the spleen, authorities said.
Enchautegui fired back and hit Armento several times, including once in the penis. Brancato was hit twice in the chest.
Brancato had been dating Armento's daughter, Stefanie.
According to authorities, Steven Armento had committed burglaries as a low-level Genovese associate 20 years ago but had become such a junkie that the family cut him loose.
Yup..
No. That's not what I'm saying either. I'm sure he's sorry he got caught.
Remember what Christ said to the prostitute after he forgived her her sins? Go forth and SIN NO MORE. Repentence, restitution, doing your punishment are all important, but not doing it again and becoming better is more important.
O come on. Let's let him go. He said he was sorry, didn't he?
Next line: "I'm not a crook. I just play one on TV."
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