Sopranos actor Lillo Brancato has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for having taken part in a 2005 robbery that resulted in his accomplice having shot dead an off-duty police officer.

Last month, Brancato, 32, was cleared of second degree murder by a New York jury, but was convicted of attempted burglary, prosecutors having said that the former star of the US TV series and his accomplice had broken into an apartment in the city to steal prescription drugs.

Lillo Brancato, who played Matt Bevilaqua in the second series of the drama, told the jury in his murder trial that at the time of the robbery, he had been suffering from heroin withdrawal and asked the judge for mercy.

Nevertheless, Supreme Court Justice Martin Marcus told the actor that he could not ignore the fact that as a result of the burglary, a young police officer had lost his life, adding that Brancato’s drug issues made for a sad story of wasted good fortune and extraordinary opportunity.

Police officer Daniel Enchautegui, 28, was shot to death when he arrived to investigate the burglary at the apartment next to his in the Bronx part of New York City back in December 2005.

Speaking of the incident, Lillo Brancato told his murder trial jury that he had not been aware of the fact that Steven Armento, his accomplice and the father of his ex-girlfriend, had been armed at the time of the robbery.

In October, Armento was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.