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Michael Stewart of Monroe Township in Middlesex County must serve nearly the entire plea-bargained sentence handed down this week because there's no parole in the federal prison system.
Stewart thought he had someone he could trust when he asked for help finding someone he could pay for the killings.
He "regularly traveled to Baltimore and used a cellphone while out of state to communicate with the confidential source and others," U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Then came a day in October 2021 when Stewart met with what turned out to be an undercover law enforcement officer wearing a wire, an FBI complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Newark says.
He said he wanted his ex-wife's daughter killed first "cause she started the whole thing," the complaint says.
Stewart insisted it be done in a way that didn't suggest a hit and told the purported hit man to wait six months before killing his ex-wife, federal authorities said.
"I don't give a f*ck how you do it," he was secretly recorded saying.
Stewart said he couldn't kill the women himself because he wouldn't have a reasonable alibi, according to the FBI complaint.
Instead, he showed the investigator a photo of his ex-wife on his phone, gave him a layout of the property and information about the type of cars the women used, the complaint says.
Stewart also handed over $500 in cash, it says, as a down payment for the ghoulish work.
Stewart took a deal from the government rather than face the consequences of a guilty verdict following the trial. He pleaded guilty last September to using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder for hire.
In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Julien Xavier Neals sentenced Stewart on Tuesday, May 2, to three years of supervised release.
Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI with the investigation leading to the plea and sentence, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Olta Bejleri of his Organized Crime/Gangs Unit in Newark.
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