Hit man in 'vile,' 'depraved' NJ murder-for-hire case sentenced. Here's what he got

George Bratsenis, one of the two hit men who pleaded guilty to a New Jersey murder-for-hire plot, was sentenced Wednesday to 16 years in prison by U.S. District Judge John Michael Vazquez in federal court in Newark.

Bratsenis, 74, was the first to alert authorities to the details behind the mysterious killing of political operative Michael Galdieri, who was stabbed to death and whose apartment was set on fire on May 22, 2014.

Bratsenis and his partner in a string of armed robberies, Bomani Africa, were paid $15,000 by political consultant Sean Caddle to kill Galdieri, Vazquez said. Caddle wanted him dead because he had been stealing money from Caddle, according to Vazquez. Bratsenis called Galdieri "a real nice guy," having known Galdieri for a couple of years before the murder and worked with him on a 2013 state Senate race.

"I just got caught between two people that I thought were friends and everything, and one turned against the other, and disaster struck," Bratsenis said Wednesday, leaning on a cane with his wrists shackled. "Most heinous crime I ever saw in my life. I still have nightmares about it ... If there was some way or chance that I could change places with Michael ... I would fall on the sword. It's a shame what happened."

Vazquez acknowledged that the cold case likely would not have been solved without the cooperation of Bratsenis, who told authorities about the murder sometime in 2016, and if he had waited any longer, the U.S. Attorney's Office might not have been able to obtain the cell center, phone and bank records that corroborated Bratsenis' story.

Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Cortes said Bratsenis helped create the "spine" of their cases and used "affirmative investigative techniques" such as making phone calls from prison, and that he was "uprooted" from various prisons for reasons Cortes "won't get into ... in furtherance of his participation in this investigation."

Vazquez said he "effectively knocked seven years off his sentence" to account for the time cooperating. But the judge added, "Part of me thinks this sentence is way too light."

"It is one of the most unusual, certainly one of the most heinous, crimes I've ever encountered as a judge," Vazquez said. "I had trouble coming up with words to describe how vile this crime is. Depraved, debased, done for an amount of money that was not going to change Mr. Africa's or Mr. Bratsenis’ life in any meaningful way.

"And Mr. Bratsenis actually said he knew the victim, that he was a real nice person," Vazquez said. "So Mr. Bratsenis helped take ... a real nice person’s life in a brutal fashion for a paltry sum of money."

Vazquez recommended that Bratsenis be incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center in Devens, Massachusetts, for his health treatments. Bratsenis was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2016, suffers from COPD, kidney disease, hypertension and hyperthyroidism, and was recently diagnosed with an enlarged heart and is likely to need open-heart surgery, Vazquez and Bratsenis' defense attorney Charles Kurmay said. Bratsenis takes prescription medication for depression and anxiety, Vazquez said.

Bratsenis, wearing an earth-colored shirt and pants and thick black-rimmed glasses, puffed on an inhaler throughout the proceeding.

"I know that defense counsel has said that Mr. Bratsenis is a different man than he was in 2014," Vazquez said. "It appears he's a sicker man physically, but he’s a dangerous man ... who has lived your life with no regard for others."

The 16-year sentence starts retroactively to the day Bratsenis pleaded guilty on March 24, 2022, Vazquez said. In addition to prison time, Bratsenis was sentenced to five years of supervised release and a $100 fine. Vazquez said he did not hear back from Galdieri's family about restitution.

Last April, a federal judge in Connecticut sentenced Bratsenis to eight years in prison, three years of supervised release and $29,937 in restitution for armed bank robbery. Bratsenis had been detained for nearly eight years as the case against him progressed, meaning he served most of his sentence by the time of his sentencing.

A onetime U.S. Marine who served during Vietnam, Bratsenis was convicted of murder and armed robbery in Connecticut in the 1980s and found guilty of a string of jewelry store heists in New Jersey that netted more than $1 million and sent him away for decades.

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After he was released from prison in 2010 — serving about 24 years of a 50-year sentence — Bratsenis began working for Caddle in 2013 on a state Senate campaign, having met Caddle through Caddle’s brother, who had served a sentence in the same New Jersey prison as Bratsenis, prosecutors wrote.

In 2013, Caddle ran the campaign of former state Sen. Ray Lesniak, D-Union, who credited his reelection to Caddle after barely scraping by two years earlier.

"It's mine," Lesniak told NorthJersey.com when asked which 2013 campaign the three men worked on together. "I'm sure I met Galdieri ... Billy O'Dea, who introduced me to Caddle, told me I did, but I don't remember. I never met Bratsenis."

Prosecutors wrote that Bratsenis and Caddle lived together during the campaign, but Bratsenis returned to Connecticut after the November election. At a dinner at Caddle’s home in March or April of 2014, Caddle told Bratsenis he was aware of Bratsenis’ extensive criminal history and a murder he committed in 1984, and asked Bratsenis if he knew whether someone would commit a murder for $15,000, prosecutors wrote.

After Bratsenis recruited Africa, Caddle said he wanted Galdieri dead within 30 days and gave Bratsenis between $2,000 and $4,000 up front, prosecutors wrote.

Bratsenis and Africa surveilled Galdieri’s apartment several times. On May 22, Bratsenis drove from Connecticut to a Newark bus station, where he picked up Africa, who had traveled from Pennsylvania.

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Not long after Galdieri let them in, the pair stabbed him to death, and Bratsenis doused the apartment with gasoline from a plastic gas can and set the apartment on fire.

"It was a vicious killing ... It was so violent that Mr. Africa was stabbed in the frenzy," Cortes said.

A day later, Bratsenis met Caddle in an Elizabeth diner parking lot. Sitting in Caddle’s car, Caddle paid Bratsenis the remaining share of the money, which he shared with Africa, prosecutors wrote.

Bratsenis signed a plea agreement in August 2021 and pleaded guilty before Vazquez by videoconference on March 24, 2022.

Last month, Vazquez sentenced Africa, 62, to 20 years in prison for his role in the plot, while Caddle, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder for hire, awaits sentencing in June. Caddle is on home confinement with an ankle monitor, and prosecutors said he is cooperating on a separate federal investigation.

While the subject of his cooperation is unknown, Caddle's name cropped up in another case, where the former chief of staff to Sen. President Nicholas Scutari, Tony Teixeria, pleaded guilty in federal court to tax evasion and wire fraud charges.

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Vazquez imposed a sentence longer than what prosecutors had recommended, between 12½ to 15 years, writing that while “Bratsenis’ crime was the most serious one a defendant can commit ... on the other hand, Bratsenis is now 74 years old … given his age and length of prison sentence he invariably faces on this charge, Bratsenis poses less of a specific deterrence threat.”

The hit men were each facing up to life in prison and a $250,000 fine.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Second hit man in NJ murder-for-hire case sentenced to 16 years