A Long Island killer can look forward to spending at least 25 years behind bars after a jury found him guilty of slaying the owner of the legendary L&B Spumoni Gardens pizzeria during a botched robbery in 2016, according to District Attorney Eric Gonzalez’s office.
Andres “Andy” Fernandez, 44, was convicted of second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on Monday.
Fernandez had staked out 61-year-old Louis Barbati’s Dyker Heights home in June 2016, waiting until the victim returned from the iconic pizza joint carrying a plastic bag with $15,483 in cash at around 7 pm, according to investigators.
Testimony from a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent claimed that Fernandez could be seen on surveillance video putting on a black glove and holding a handgun, before walking across the street to confront Barbati and shooting him several times, investigators said.
Cell phone records and multiple eye witnesses also placed Fernandez at both the scene of the deadly incident, and at the pizzeria earlier in the day, according to investigators.
Following the ambush at the corner of 12th Avenue and 76th Street, the gunman fled without taking any money in a late-model Acura, according to prosecutors. Authorities do not know why the shooter left the scene empty handed, a spokesman for the district attorney said.
Federal agents cuffed Fernandez on November 3, 2016. He faces 25 years to life in prison when he is sentenced next January, according to authorities.
