Christopher Fernandez sentenced in 'senseless' backyard shooting death of unarmed Bohemia father, Michael Hartmann

A Suffolk judge said a Sound Beach man should serve "no less than the maximum sentence” in the death  of a Bohemia father of four who was gunned down in his own backyard by strangers in search of stolen belongings they mistakenly believed might be in his home.

Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Steven Pilewski told Christopher Fernandez, 30, that he "cannot think of a more heinous act” than the shooting of unarmed 49-year-old Michael Hartmann. Hartmann was killed by Fernandez and a codefendant, who admitted to firing the fatal shots, as he prepared to go to work in the early morning hours of Nov. 2, 2022.

"Hartmann was senselessly shot while standing in his backyard, all because this defendant was under the nonsensical and incorrect belief that an occupant of the subject house had taken something from him,” Pilewski said as he ordered Fernandez to serve 25 years to life in state prison.

Fernandez was also convicted by a jury on March 6 of attempted burglary, multiple gun charges and a petit larceny he committed at a Manorville gas station before the shooting, for which he received concurrent sentences. He stole a ski mask, gloves and hat from a gas station.

After Fernandez was convicted of second-degree murder, codefendant Oliver Schor, 24, also of Sound Beach, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and admitted to firing the gun that killed Hartmann. He received an agreed-upon sentence of 22-years-to-life in prison Thursday.

Evidence at the Fernandez trial showed he and Schor arrived at the Hartmann home at 6 a.m. after Fernandez used cellphone location technology to track down items he said were stolen from him in the hours before the shooting.

Prosecutors said Hartmann was a stranger to the two men and no one inside his home was in possession of the belongings, which Fernandez said were taken from him by two women in a drug-induced series of mishaps that began at a hotel in Medford.

Hartmann was making coffee when investigators believe he became aware of the two men attempting to enter his home from the backyard. A neighbor’s Ring camera picked up the sound of three quick shots from an AR-15 rifle, a 10-second delay and then a fourth and final shot.

Assistant District Attorney Frank Schroeder said at trial that investigators believed the unarmed Hartmann was attempting to get back into his house from his blood-stained deck when the final shot was fired by one of the fleeing men.

When Schroeder addressed the judge during the sentencing, he asked Fernandez, who was arrested more than 18 months after the murder, to turn and look at a Hartmann family photograph. "I want you to see what you did," he told Fernandez.

Fernandez, after consulting with defense attorney Pierre Bazile, of Huntington, turned and looked at the image on a courtroom television screen.

Schroeder told the judge he believes Fernandez continues to "shift the criminal responsibility” for causing Hartmann’s death to Schor. The prosecutor said Fernandez drove the action that morning when he asked Schor, whom he knew to carry guns, to help him find his belongings.

"The reason we’re here is because of him and his total selfishness,” Schroeder said. "He is responsible for the death of Michael Hartmann.”

Bazile, who defended Fernandez with colleague Christopher Cassar, took exception to Schroeder portraying his client as someone without remorse. He read a statement Fernandez made to the Suffolk County Probation Department saying he’s "sorry for everything that happened.”

Fernandez, who did not speak at sentencing, provided Bazile with handwritten remarks the attorney read. "I pray for your family and hope one day you can forgive me,” Fernandez’s statement concluded.

Brittany Hartmann, 26, the eldest of Hartmann’s daughters, told the judge the family does not forgive either man.

A nurse, she spoke of the personal and professional trauma she has endured since trying to revive her father with CPR on the floor of the family home after the shooting.

"My family didn't deserve to lose him and I did not deserve to watch my daddy die on the same foundation he built his family on,” she said.

Both Brittany and her mother, Kim Hartmann, spoke of how the slain father, a carpenter, dedicated his life to protecting and providing for his family. They said he was a generous man who was deprived of seeing his daughters grow into adulthood.

"He was the kind of man who worked hard, always put his family first, made people laugh — he supported others,” Kim Hartmann said. "The day we lost him, our lives were permanently changed. There is not a single day that goes by that we do not feel the weight of his absence.”

David Besso, of Bay Shore, the attorney for Schor, told the judge his client pleaded guilty to second-degree murder to avoid putting the family through the difficulty of a second trial. 

"I'm sorry for what I’ve done and what I’ve caused,” Schor told the judge and the Hartmann family. "No one deserves to be going through what you’re going through.”