Prosecutors say Brancato and accomplice Steven Armento broke into a basement apartment to steal prescription drugs after a night of drinking at a strip club.

Brancato rose to fame in the 1993 movie "A Bronx Tale," playing a young kid from the neighborhood who is torn between two worlds and two men: a local mobster played by Chazz Palminteri and his straight-and-narrow bus-driver father, played by Robert De Niro.

Other roles followed, most notably a stint on the second season of "The Sopranos," where he played a bumbling aspiring mobster. His character carried out a series of low-level crimes for the New Jersey mob before being gunned down by Tony Soprano and his sidekick as he tearfully begged for his life.

The pills were part of a drug problem that he said began when he was "introduced to marijuana" on the set of "A Bronx Tale." He later became hooked on crack and heroin, he said.

He told the jury that

Hmmm, O.K. I don't think its the use, I think its the abuse that creates problems!

Some people don't know when fun stops and addiction or abuse begins.

some areas are simply so harmful, that better stay away from them by all means.