The grief-stricken widow of slain L&B Spumoni Gardens co-owner Louis Barbati could barely hold it together Thursday when she took the stand at the trial of her husband’s alleged murderer.
Joann Barbati gripped a handful of tissues in Brooklyn Supreme Court as she was shown surveillance footage from June 29, 2016, the day her husband was gunned down outside their Dyker Heights home.
“That’s him,” she uttered through tears, as she pointed out her late husband leaving the famed Gravesend pizzeria with a bag cops say contained $15,000 in cash.
The devastated woman then burst into loud sobs, until Assistant District Attorney Emily Dean had to ask her to “please bear with me.”
Joann was at home cooking when she heard gunshots on the day of the murder, she told police.
She then heard her husband loudly calling her name and darted outside — to find him bleeding in the backyard.
In court Thursday, Joann was shown another surveillance video of herself rushing out of the couple’s home and then running back in. Her husband’s body was out of frame.
“That’s me running back into the house” to get her phone, she testified, head bowed, drying her tears.
Accused killer Andres Fernandez, 43, and his white Acura were also caught on surveillance footage at the scene of the shooting and at the pizza and spumoni joint earlier in the day, authorities have said.
Police say Fernandez allegedly shot Barbati, 61, who was carrying the load of cash — and a loaf of bread — five times in a robbery gone awry.
But the Long Island man claims he’s just a patsy being set up as a fall-guy for the crime.
The FBI first called the shooting a mob hit, possibly from a beef over the theft of L&B Spumani’s secret pizza sauce recipe by a former employee. The feds then turned the case over to the NYPD, which investigated it as armed robbery.
The victim’s cousin, Toni Corey, another co-owner of the iconic eatery, testified Thursday about preparing the cash bonuses and putting them a the bag she left in the restaurant’s safe for Barbati to take home.
Prosecutors showed a photo of the bag in court, streaked in blood and ripped.
Bonuses weren’t regularly scheduled, so nobody would have known Barbati was taking the cash home that day, Corey said.
Asked if she knew anyone who would have wanted to hurt Barbati — nicknamed “LouLou” — she said: “Absolutely not.”
“No, he was just a teddy bear,” Corey said.
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November 22, 2019 at 07:39AM
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Widow of murdered Brooklyn pizza joint owner breaks down in court - New York Post
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