Actor Robert Iler, who plays AJ on the award-winning US TV show The Sopranos, pleaded guilty to mugging two tourists and was sentenced to three years' probation on Tuesday.
Iler could have received one year in jail for the misdemeanour offence, but escaped prison by admitting petty larceny. Under the terms of the agreement, prosecutors recommended the lighter sentence and a Manhattan Supreme Court Judge accepted it.
The 17-year-old actor was arrested in July 2001 after he and three friends allegedly robbed two teenage Brazilian boys of $40 on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The victims later identified Iler and his friends as the culprits. He could have faced up to 15 years in prison if he had stood trial on the original, more serious charge of second degree robbery.
Iler, who plays the son of Tony Soprano on the hit HBO show about a Mafia family in New Jersey, USA, made no statement about the sentencing. However, his manager, Jeff Mitchell, said: “He wanted me to express how sorry he is for all the grief and trouble everyone went through.”
Also pleading guilty with Iler was one of his co-defendants, 17-year-old Alban Selimaj. Michael Cournede, 20, will go to trial next month and a fourth defendant, who was 15 at the time, is having his case heard by a family court.
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