NEWARK, N.J.—The man who admitted to helping carry out a murder-for-hire plot engineered by a former New Jersey political consultant was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison.
Bomani Africa appeared in federal district court for sentencing in the 2014 death of Michael Galdieri, the son of a former state senator, after pleading guilty just over a year ago.
According to prosecutors, Africa and George Bratsenis stabbed Galdieri and then set his Jersey City apartment on fire in exchange for cash at the request of political consultant Sean Caddle. Bratsenis and Caddle both pleaded guilty in the case that stunned New Jersey politics but have yet to be sentenced.
A number of questions about the case remain unanswered: Why did Caddle want Galdieri, his one-time friend, dead? Why was he given house arrest after pleading guilty last year? And were the guilty pleas connected to other investigations?
The revelations about Galdieri’s killing jolted political circles in New Jersey—a state infamous for dozens of political corruption convictions over the past three decades, as well as skullduggery like the 2013 “Bridgegate” scandal involving traffic jams purposely created near the busy George Washington Bridge for political retribution.
Caddle was well-known in northern New Jersey politics, with past clients including current Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and former Democratic state Sen. Raymond Lesniak.
Africa, already imprisoned in Rhode Island, was sentenced last week to a decade in prison over a pair of Connecticut robberies.
Bratsenis was sentenced last year to eight years for his role in one of those robberies.
Bratsenis and Caddle are scheduled to be sentenced in the killing plot next month.
