Killer of L&B owner sentenced
Man who shot Louis Barbati sentenced to 25 years to life
Andres “Andy” Fernandez shot L&B owner Louis Barbati during a botched robbery, according to investigators.
File photo by Georgine Benvenuto; Inset courtesy of the District Attorney’s offi ce
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COURIER LIFE, OCT. 23-29, 2020 3
BY ROSE ADAMS
The man convicted of killing
the owner of the legendary
L&B Spumoni Gardens pizzeria
in 2016 will face 25 years to
life behind bars, offi cials announced
Monday.
Andres “Andy” Fernandez,
44, was convicted of seconddegree
murder and second-degree
criminal possession of a
weapon in December 2019.
Prosecutors said that Fernandez
shot 61-year-old Louis
Barbati outside of his Dyker
Heights home during a botched
robbery in June 2016. Fernandez
waited for about an hour
outside Barbati’s 12th Avenue
house before the well-known
restaurateur returned from
his iconic Gravesend pizzeria
at about 7 pm, offi cials said.
Barbati parked his car and
began walking towards his
house while holding a plastic
bag with $15,483 in cash when
Fernandez approached him
and shot him multiple times
on the corner of 12th Avenue
and 76th Street, according to
the Brooklyn district attorney’s
offi ce.
During Fernandez’s 2019
trial, a Federal Bureau of Investigation
agent said 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, investigators
said.
Cellphone records and eye
witnesses also placed Fernandez
at both the scene of the
crime and at the pizzeria earlier
in the day, according to investigators.
After the shooting, Fernandez
fl ed without taking
any money in an Acura. Prosecutors
do not know why the
shooter left the scene emptyhanded,
a spokesman for the
Brooklyn District Attorney
Eric Gonzalez said.
Police offi cials released
surveillance images of Fernandez,
and he was identifi ed
by several witnesses, according
to Gonzalez’s offi ce. Federal
authorities arrested Fernandez
on November 3, 2016
— just over four months after
the homicide.
Offi cials said at the time
of his trial in November 2019
that he would be sentenced in
January 2020.
A spokesman for the district
attorney did not immediately
say why the sentencing
was delayed.
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