Pizza susp a ‘patsy’ – defense

The pizza perp is a “patsy.”

So says the lawyer of a man accused in the fatal shooting of a Brooklyn pizzeria owner gunned down outside his home.

Without a motive tying Andres Fernandez to victim Louis Barbati, prosecutors will be unable to prove he killed the L&B Spumoni Gardens owner, defense lawyer Javier Solano told jurors Tuesday.

In an opening statement at Fernandez’s trial, Solano said there were no connections between the suspect and the victim, and that at the time of the June 2016 murder, Fernandez, 43, was living comfortably on disability payments and online stocks.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is a setup,” Solano told jurors in Brooklyn Criminal Court. “Andy Fernandez is being used. You know what we call that here in Brooklyn? A patsy. He’s a patsy. A coverup for something bigger.”

But prosecutors said there is plenty of evidence against Fernandez: A white Acura that was caught on video surveillance matched Fernandez’s car. There were multiple videos of a man who looked just like Fernandez (inset) walking near Barbati’s home and business that day. And cell phone location data show him in the same neighborhood as the restaurant and on the street near Barbati’s home.

Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Emily Dean said friends turned Fernandez in after the surveillance video was released to the media.

Barbati was fatally shot in the backyard of his Dyker Heights home by a hooded gunman, police said.

The killing was eyed by investigators as possibly linked to organized crime, but no connection to the mob was ever established by prosecutors.

A 2012 extortion case revealed that a war between Bonanno and Colombo associates nearly erupted over a suspected theft of L&B’s “secret sauce” recipe.