It’s hard to know what to think about Lillo Brancato’s success in beating a murder rap for his nocturnal criminal activities of 2006. The ex-Sopranos actor [left] is obviously wealthy enough to get top-notch lawyers, and they did a good job of convincing the jury that he might not have known his trigger-happy co-burglar was packing. (The accomplice was found guilty of the shooting, which killed an off-duty cop [right].)
On the one hand, it’s ironic to hear Patrick Lynch, the racist head of the cops union (who just called another defendant a ‘mongrel’), denounce criminals who get off because they have powerful friends—as if that doesn’t define New York cops themselves who often get away with murder while Lynch cheers from the sidelines.
Brancato did well in an extremely tight spot, and maybe it was his showbiz glitter or some fancy connections. Or maybe the jury just decided that although the kid might be a druggie, spoiled as shit and dumb as a turnip, he wasn’t a killer—not yet, anyway. The two bozos apparently were breaking into an apartment of someone they knew, and Brancato’s bud was the one carrying the piece and shooting it. So they gave him the benefit of the doubt. It’s a stretch, but I guess I do too.
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