“Sopranos” actor Lillo Brancato Jr. and his cohort were arraigned yesterday on charges they murdered a cop, and pleaded not guilty under the glare of the victim’s family and a sea of police officers.
With hundreds of cops inside and outside Bronx Supreme Court, Brancato entered the courtroom with his head bowed and hands cuffed, his curly hair disheveled.
Sporting a charcoal gray suit with a white T-shirt underneath Brancato said “not guilty” solemnly when asked by the clerk for his plea.
Steven Armento, who’s accused of opening fire on Police Officer Daniel Enchautegui after the cop confronted the two men for allegedly breaking into his neighbor’s apartment, was so anxious to announce his not-guilty plea that he interrupted the clerk.
“How do you plead?” the clerk asked, and Armento said, “not guilty” as the clerk continued his question, “guilty or not guilty?”
All eyes in the packed courtroom, which seats 150 people, were on the two defendants, Brancato, 29, and his estranged girlfriend’s father, Armento, 48. They allegedly broke into their deceased friend’s apartment in search of prescription drugs on Dec. 10 when Enchautegui was killed in the Pelham Bay section of The Bronx.
Enchautegui’s mother had a look of heartbreak on her face as she sat next to her husband.
Brancato’s mother, seated in the fourth row with the actor’s father and other family, wiped her eyes and nose as the 15-minute hearing concluded.
She later called her son – who was adopted – a “good boy” whose bad life’s turn was breaking her heart “in little pieces.”
Brancato’s lawyer, Mel Sachs, noted that his client did not have a gun and insisted the actor, who played opposite Robert De Niro in “A Bronx Tale,” did not know Armento had one.
“He shouldn’t be held responsible. He’s being viewed as a cop killer, and he is not,” said Sachs, who is aiming to have his client’s case tried separately from Armento’s.
But Pat Lynch, head of the Patrolman’s Benevolent Association, said on the courthouse steps later that Brancato is just as responsible as Armento and no one should be fooled by his act or swayed by his celebrity.
“The ‘good boy’ to me was Police Officer Enchautegui, a person who dedicated his life to being a New York City police officer,” Lynch said.