NEW YORK - Former "Sopranos" actor Lillo Brancato Jr., who faces a real-life murder charge in a police officer's death, said he isn't the thug he believes he has been made out to be.
"I'm not the monster that they portray me as in newspapers, a cold-blooded killer and all of that. I'm not that person at all," he told WCBS-TV in a jail interview that aired Thursday.
Brancato and a co-defendant are awaiting trial in the December 2005 shooting of Officer Daniel Enchautegui, who was shot while off-duty.
Prosecutors said Enchautegui confronted Brancato and Steven Armento while they were breaking into a Bronx apartment in search of prescription drugs. Armento is accused of firing the fatal shot.
"I know in my heart I was in no way responsible for the death of that police officer," Brancato told WCBS. His lawyer barred questions about the shooting, according to the television station.
Brancato made his debut starring opposite Robert De Niro in "A Bronx Tale" in 1993. Brancato went on to appear in more than a dozen movies and had a recurring role as a would-be mobster on HBO's "The Sopranos."
