'He's a cold-hearted killer': New Jersey Democratic operative gets 24 years in murder-for-hire plot

NEWARK, N.J. — Sean Caddle, a former Democratic political operative who hired hitmen to kill his friend and former employee, was sentenced in federal court Thursday to 24 years in prison.

“This is one of the most unusual and certainly one of the most heinous crimes I’ve encountered as a judge,” U.S. District Court Judge John Michael Vazquez said before delivering his sentence, which far exceeded the requests of both prosecutors and Caddle’s attorneys.

The sentencing draws to a close one of the more shocking and bewildering recent New Jersey political scandals. It had elements of intrigue — murder, politics and government cooperation — that led to months of speculation in political circles.

Prosecutors had requested 15 years in prison for Caddle, who pleaded guilty to murder for hire, due to his cooperation with them on numerous investigations. Caddle’s attorneys had asked for a nine-year sentence.

Caddle, prosecutors said, told them he had Michael Galdieri killed because he feared might expose his wrongdoing on campaigns.

Vazquez further called Caddle’s crime “depraved, debased and vile” and remanded him to federal custody despite Caddle’s request to turn himself in at a later date. U.S. Marshals led Caddle — who came to the federal courthouse in Newark in a plaid shirt and khakis after a year and a half of home confinement — out of the courthouse in handcuffs.

Caddle declined to make any remarks at the hearing.

Galdieri’s sister, Virginia, said the 2014 murder of her brother changed her life, causing “overwhelming grief and sadness” and suggesting that news of her brother’s murder may have contributed to her mother’s death three years later.

Standing next to her brother Richard and holding back tears, Virginia Galdieri recalled a feeling of “stupidity, betrayal and regret that comes” after learning that “this person you cried and embraced at your brother’s funeral was the one solely responsible for your brother’s death.” Following the hearing, Richard Galdieri said his family was satisfied with the sentence.

Cooperation that was 'not actionable'

Caddle, 45, made his name as a campaign worker for powerful former state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union). Later, he set up a network of nonprofit groups and super PACs, some intended to spread Lesniak’s influence around the state through spending large sums in local races. The network effectively hid donations to the super PACs by channeling them through nonprofit groups that are not required to publicly disclose their donors.

Galdieri, the son of a late state senator, in 2014 was found stabbed to death in his Jersey City apartment, which was also lit on fire.

In January 2022, Caddle pleaded guilty to hiring career criminals George Bratsenis, who along with Galdieri had worked for Caddle’s campaign consultant business, and Bomani Africa to kill Galdieri. Caddle paid the pair $15,000 at an Elizabeth diner the day after the murder.

Bratsenis and Africa, who both also pleaded guilty, were sentenced to 16 and 20 years in prison, respectively. Vazquez said Caddle is more responsible for Galdieri’s death and that the two hitmen were his “blunt instruments” in carrying it out.

“He’s a cold-hearted killer. He killed a friend,” Vazquez said.

Because Caddle was allowed to remain in home confinement despite the gravity of his crime, many New Jersey political observers and journalists reasoned that a big corruption bust was imminent through his cooperation. But the only prosecution to come out of the case was the wire fraud and tax evasion guilty plea of Democratic operative Tony Teixeira, who served as chief of staff to Lesniak and Senate President Nick Scutari.

Teixeira admitted to scheming with Caddle to inflate invoices of campaigns, super PACs and dark money nonprofits to skim more than $100,000 from them. He awaits sentencing.

Prosecutors acknowledged that Caddle cooperated with other investigations but did not go into specifics. Caddle held seven in-person meetings with FBI agents; had many more phone calls with investigators; turned over documents and recordings of conversations with unnamed people made prior to being contacted by authorities; and later recorded conversations at investigators’ behest, prosecutors said. They did not say whether the investigations bore any fruit, but Vazquez later said “the government determined it was not actionable.”

Vazquez also said Caddle had told prosecutors two versions of his motive to kill Galdieri. In one version, Caddle said that Galdieri was extorting him for cash, threatening that “he would go public about certain things he had seen, done and heard while working for Caddle on campaigns.” In another version, Vazquez said, Caddle decided to act after being told by Bratsenis that Galdieri said he would “would attempt to implicate high-level political figures" through unspecified allegations.

Vazquez said he believed the first explanation.

“Mr. Caddle did this to save his own skin. He didn’t do this to have any of his high-end political figures,” he said. ”He had no problem cooperating with the government when he thought it would help him.”

Vazquez also said Caddle’s response to prosecutors’ questions about what he would have done differently was "disturbing.” Prosecutors said Caddle told them “I should have surrounded myself with a different class of people with higher moral character, without criminal histories or substance abuse issues.”

“He just focuses on himself and how he apparently is the victim in this case,” Vazquez said.