37°
Sean Caddle, 45, of Hamburg, will have to serve just about all of the plea-bargained sentence because there's no parole in the federal prison system.
Caddle, a former aide to former State Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth), admitted last year that he paid the killers to whack Michael Galdieri, the son of former State Sen. James Galdieri (D-Jersey City) and a prominent figure in local Hudson County politics.
Galdieri, 52, who'd worked for Caddle on various election campaigns, was stabbed to death in his Jersey City apartment on Mallory Street in May 2014. The killers then poured gasoline and set the place on fire.
Firefighters found Galdieri's body after dousing the flames.
The motive?
Galdieri struggled with drugs and had a minor criminal record as a result. He apparently hit Caddle up for money frequently, then began extorting his longtime patron when he refused, according to documents on file in U.S. District Court in Newark.
Galdieri threatened to "go public" about "certain things he had seen, done and heard" while working for Caddle, the government maintained in a sentencing memo.
Fearing what that could do to his career, Caddle turned to ex-con George Bratsenis, who once served time with his older brother and later worked for Caddle’s consulting business.
Caddle offered Bratsenis, of Monroe, CT, $15,000 to eliminate Galdieri, federal investigators said.
Bratsenis, in turn, recruited a former fellow prison inmate and longtime partner in crime, Bomani Africa of Philadelphia, to help him, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said.
Bratsenis was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War who had served prison time for his role in a 1980 crew recruited by a mob-connected Stamford police lieutenant to kill a drug dealer and steal a kilo of heroin.
He was also part of a gang that went on a jewelry store holdup spree in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut that netted more than $1 million worth of bling. The robbers set fires elsewhere to distract police.
Bratsenis made headlines again when he infamously hatched an escape plan while he was being held in the Passaic County Jail for the jewelry store heists.
The scheme had his sister smuggling in a balloon filled with a drug that would make him sick. Bratsenis planned to keep it hidden in his rectum for two weeks, ingest it to get sick and then make a break for it at the hospital, where armed henchmen would be lying in wait.
Jailhouse snitch Anthony Sheppard – known as “The Rat” -- blew that up, however.
Africa, meanwhile, had a criminal history that included convictions for robbery and drug-related crimes beginning soon after he turned 18.
The former Baxter Randolph Keys and Bratsenis had met while both were doing time in Northern State Prison in Newark. They agreed to work together once they were released, investigators said.
Their opportunity came in April 2014, when the ex-cons robbed a People’s United branch on Old Kings Highway in Darien, CT.
It was right around that time – spring of 2014 -- that Caddle recruited Bratsenis, Sellinger said.
Caddle gave the killer several thousand dollars up front, with the rest to come after Galdieri was dead.
Once the deed was done, Caddle met Bratsenis in the parking lot of an Elizabeth diner and completed the payment, the U.S. attorney said. Bratsenis then gave Africa a cut, he said.
In a cruel coda, Caddle then attended the repast held by Galdieri's loved ones, authorities said.
In September of that same year, Bratsenis and Africa robbed a bank in Trumbull, CT of $29,937. As before, the two men leaped onto bank counters, pointed guns at the tellers and had them empty the cash drawers. They then torched their stolen getaway car for cover.
Although that case was solved, the Galdieri murder lingered for seven years until Caddle abruptly entered a plea in January 2022.
SEE: NJ Political Operative Admits Paying Hit Men To Kill Longtime Associate
Africa quickly followed, then Bratsenis.
SEE: Career Criminal From Connecticut, 73, Admits Committing Murder-For-Hire Of Jersey City Politico
Neither the media nor the public saw it coming.
By taking deals, all three men avoided the consequences of each possibly testifying against one another. It also spared the government the time and expense of a trial, while raising suspicions that any or all of them were cooperating with the FBI on other cases.
Speculation only intensified after U.S. District Judge John Michael Vazquez allowed Caddle to remain free on $1 million unsecured bond, with home detention at his Sussex County townshouse, electronic monitoring and travel restrictions, following his guilty plea in January 2022 to conspiracy to commit murder for hire.
In addition to the prison term, Vazquez sentenced Caddle on Thursday, June 29, to five years of supervised release and ordered him held pending assignment to a federal penitentiary.
Bratsenis was already sentenced to 16 years in federal prison on March 29.
SEE: Aging Career Criminal Gets 16 Years In Bizarre Murder-For-Hire Of NJ Politico
Africa was sentenced to 20 years on Feb. 23.
SEE: Admitted Hit Man From Philly Gets 20 Years In Bizarre Murder-For-Hire Of NJ Politico
Sellinger called the sentences for Caddle and the killers "just punishment for a heinous crime," which he hopes "provides some measure of justice for the victim and his family."
The "dedicated agents" of the FBI and members of his own office who "doggedly" pursued the case have now "brought to justice all three individuals responsible for the death of Michael Galdieri,” the U.S. attorney said.
Sellinger also thanked the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office and IRS-Criminal Investigation for their roles in the guilty pleas and sentences secured by Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee M. Cortes Jr. and Sean Farrell, the chief of the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division in New York.
Both Bratsenis and Africa also received lengthy state prison sentences for the Connecticut bank holdups. Those would have to be served after their federal stretches are completed, however.
Africa has already been imprisoned for nearly eight years in Rhode Island for a bank robbery there. He's also written a book about his life.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Ridgefield Park-Hasbrouck Heights and receive free news updates.
