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John Michael Musbach, 34, of Haddonfield, must serve out just about all of the plea-bargained term because there's no parole in the federal prison system.
Musbach began communicating with the child in 2015 and soon after exchanged videos and photos that were discovered by the kid's parents, federal authorities said.
Musbach was living in Galloway when members of the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office raided his home and arrested him in March 2016.
Determined to keep the child from testifying, Musbach connected with the administrator of a murder-for-hire site on the darknet barely two months later, federal agents said.
Told that the child's age wasn't an issue, Musbach paid $20,000 in cryptocurrency for the hit, according to a complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Camden.
He later called it off and asked for a refund after his connection demanded he cough up another $5,000, it says. The administrator then revealed that the site wasn't real and threatened to go to the authorities.
Musbach pleaded guilty to child endangerment in October 2017 in exchange for a suspended two-year state prison sentence and lifetime parole.
Skip ahead to 2019, when agents with the federal Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) got hold of the murder-for-hire messages.
Musbach was found "lurking in the dark web," HSI-Newark Special-Agent-in-Charge Ricky J. Patel said this week. His efforts to silence the young victim "shows the extreme lengths child predators will go to avoid paying for their heinous activities,” the SAC said.
Musbach took a deal from the government rather than risk the potential consequences of a trial, pleading guilty this past February to using interstate commerce with the intent to commit murder, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said.
In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez sentenced Musbach to three years of supervised release -- and fined him $30,000 -- on Tuesday, June 27 in Camden.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana Vondra Carrig secured the plea and sentence following an investigation by HSI, assisted by the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office.
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