Andres Fernandez.
I’m not really sure why this murder “shocked” Brooklyn.
These kinds of crimes are par for the course in a diverse and vibrant city like Jew York.
Three years after a killing that shocked Brooklyn, the trial of the suspect in the shooting of Louis Barbati, co-owner of the legendary Gravesend pizzeria L&B Spumoni Gardens, is set to begin in Brooklyn Supreme Court this week.
The feds initially investigated the murder of Barbati outside his Dyker Heights home in June 2016 as a mob hit that may have been part of a battle between two Italian crime families over a stolen pizza sauce recipe.
But the FBI eventually turned the case over to the NYPD, which settled on 43-year-old Andres Fernandez as the prime suspect and labeled the case as a botched robbery.
The cops say Fernandez shot Barbati, who was carrying $15,000 in a bag and a loaf of bread, five times in a robbery turned lethal.
…
Surveillance footage allegedly showed the Long Island man and his white Acura at the scene on June 30 — while his cell phone was also traced to Dyker Heights and Spumoni Gardens in Gravesend earlier that day.
When jury selection began on Friday, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office agreed to drop the attempted robbery charge and murder charge associated with the alleged robbery.
The charges against Fernandez now are second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
Louis Barbati.