Related articles:
NY cop killers were looking for drugs
Man accused of shooting NY officer pleads not guilty
Slain NY cop had big dreams
By Melissa Grace and Corky Siemaszko
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — A two-bit crook’s attempt to escape punishment by claiming he killed an off-duty Bronx cop in self-defense got a dose of mercury poisoning Monday.
The judge presiding over Steve Armento’s case said he would let the jury hear statements cops say he made about doctoring bullets with mercury. Those remarks also implicate his accused accomplice, “Sopranos” actor Lillo Brancato.
“He knows I slice the hollow-point bullets like a half an inch down so it disappears, so there’s no ballistics,” cops say Armento told them. “Lillo knows I slice the bullets, I put mercury in the bullets and I use wax to seal it.”
But Supreme Court Justice Martin Marcus would not allow the most chilling part of the statement cops say Armento gave them two days after allegedly shooting Officer Daniel Enchautegui in a bungled burglary in December 2005.
“If the bullet doesn’t kill you, the mercury will,” Armento told detectives, police say.
At a pretrial hearing, the 51-year-old junkie said he didn’t recall making any statements while recovering from the shots Enchautegui fired before he died.
Assistant District Attorney Theresa Gottlieb said she didn’t buy that.
“It’s so far-fetched that nobody would know you do that - unless you do that,” she said.
Armento and Brancato - addicts looking for pills after a night of partying - were breaking into a Pelham Bay home as Enchautegui approached them near dawn on Dec. 10, 2005, cops said.
After he was arrested, Armento did not deny shooting at Enchautegui. He even specified which bullets he used to kill the cop.
“The bullet I used was only sliced; it didn’t have mercury in it,” he said at the hospital, prosecutors contend.
The statement introduced in court does not explain why Armento, who cops say had a shooting range in his basement, defaced the bullets.
Armento is charged with first-degree murder. Jury selection begins this week. The trial could last six weeks.
Brancato, 32, a once-promising actor who made his screen debut as a teenager in Robert De Niro’s “A Bronx Tale,” also faces murder charges when he goes on trial Oct. 28.
Both men have rap sheets - Brancato for drugs and Armento’s dating back 30 years for firearms, drugs and burglary charges.
Copyright 2008 New York Daily News