Sound Beach man convicted in mistaken-identity slaying of Bohemia dad

Christopher Fernandez (above, left) faces up to 25 years to life in the 2022 murder of Michael Hartmann (above, on right), a man prosecutors say had zero connection to the defendants

A Suffolk County jury convicted a Sound Beach man of second-degree murder in the predawn killing of a Bohemia homeowner who, investigators say, was shot to death through a case of pure mistaken identity.

Prosecutors said Michael Hartmann, 49, was standing on his own backyard deck — having left the house to smoke a cigarette — when two armed men arrived at the wrong house.

Christopher Fernandez, 29, was found guilty on Friday of second-degree murder and four additional charges, following a jury trial before Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Steven Pilewski, Suffolk District Attorney Raymond Tierney announced on Tuesday.

Fernandez is one of two defendants accused in the killing of Hartmann, a carpenter who was married with four children. He faces up to 25 years to life in prison when he is sentenced April 8.

Hartmann, 49, was killed about 6:36 a.m. on Nov. 2, 2022, when Fernandez and co-defendant Oliver Schor, 23, of Miller Place, descended on the property armed with rifles, authorities said.

The two men had tracked what Fernandez believed to be a stolen cellphone, using its location signal to pinpoint what they thought was the thief’s address, prosecutors said. They had the wrong house.

As the pair got ready to enter through the rear door of the residence, they encountered Hartmann. Schor opened fire, shooting Hartmann multiple times, according to prosecutors.

Both men then fled the scene in Schor’s mother’s car, according to authorities. Hartmann died at the scene.

“An innocent man on his own back deck at dawn paid the ultimate price for something that he had absolutely nothing to do with,” Tierney said.

Tierney described Hartmann as “a devoted husband and father.”

Prosecutors previously had said that Fernandez robbed an employee at an Exxon Mobil gas station in Manorville in the hours before the killing.

Beyond the murder count, the jury convicted Fernandez of first-degree attempted burglary, second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, second-degree criminal use of a firearm, and petit larceny.

Schor has not yet gone to trial. He faces more serious charges, including first-degree murder with prosecutors saying he fired the shots that killed Hartmann. If convicted of that count, he faces life in prison.

_{Top: on left, Christopher Fernandez of Sound Beach (SCDA) and on right, victim Michael Hartmann, 49, of Bohemia.}