A former Democratic political consultant from New Jersey was handed down a 24-year federal prison sentence Thursday after being convicted of hiring two hitmen to kill a colleague. 

Sean Caddle, 45, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit murder-for-hire in the killing of Michael Galdieri, whose apartment was set on fire after he was fatally stabbed in 2014. Though Caddle admitted to the killing, U.S. District Judge John Michael Vazquez sounded skeptical of his acceptance of any responsibility.

He said it sounded as if Caddle was trying to "save his own skin" by cooperating with prosecutors. 

"This is one of the most unusual and certainly one of the most heinous crimes I’ve encountered as a judge," Vazquez said.

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Caddle did not comment on the sentence after the court proceeding. Two of Galdieri’s relatives, who declined to give their names, stood in the courtroom as one read a statement from the family.

"How could I effectively articulate the impact that it has on you, that your brother was murdered and his apartment set on fire?" the woman said.

She said she felt "complete stupidity and regret" over crying in Caddle’s arms after her brother’s death and that she thought he was a friend of the family's. 

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Caddle told prosecutors he wanted Galdieri dead because Galdieri was threatening to extort money from him in exchange for not exposing wrongdoing Galdieri claimed Caddle committed through his political consulting business.

One of two ex-convicts who pleaded to a Connecticut bank robbery in 2014 assisted prosecutors when he told them about a murder that occurred that same year. George Bratsenis was later sentenced to 16 years and Bomani Africa to 20 years after they ultimately pleaded guilty to helping Caddle with the murder.

Caddle asked Bratsenis if he could find someone to commit murder for $15,000, Bratsenis said.

Caddle said he wanted Galdieri dead within a month and gave Bratsenis up to $4,000 upfront, according to prosecutors. On May 22, 2014, the Bratsenis and Africa drove together to the apartment of Galdieri, who had been expecting Bratsensis because they had discussed robbing drug dealers together, authorities said.

He was fatally stabbed in his home and the residence was doused with gasoline and set on fire. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said he would not be backing the eventual Democrat presidential nominee.

In a Wednesday interview, Kennedy said that he will not be backing whoever gets the Democratic nomination and that he is going full send on his campaign.

"Of course I’m not going to do that," Kennedy said in the interview.

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"You’re not going to do that?" NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas asked.

"No, of course," Kennedy responded, telling the reporter he doesn’t know what he’ll do if Biden gets the blue party nomination again.

"Let’s see what happens in this campaign," Kennedy said. "Let’s see, you know, if people are living up to Democratic values and having debates and having discussions."

"My plan is to win this election, and I don’t have a Plan B," Kennedy said when asked if he would back a Republican nominee or run as an independent candidate if he doesn’t get the Democrat nomination.

In the same interview, Kennedy said he’s running for president because he believes the Democratic Party "has lost its way" and that he wants his "party back."

"I’m not going to attack other people personally," he said. "What I’m trying to do in this race is bring people together."

"You won’t hear me saying bad things about President Biden," Kennedy said. "I’m not going to attack him as a man."

Kennedy Jr. announced online this week that another of his interviews has been removed from social media giant YouTube.

Kennedy said that his interview with former New York Post reporter Al Guart had been taken off the prominent video-sharing platform.

The Democrat challenger to President Biden in the 2024 primaries has already seen one of his interviews removed from YouTube due to an apparent violation of the website's vaccine misinformation policy.

"[YouTube] just pulled another of my videos, with former NY Post political reporter [Guart]," Kennedy wrote in a Tuesday Twitter thread. "People made a big deal about Russia supposedly manipulating internet information to influence a Presidential election. Shouldn’t we be worried when giant tech corporations do the same?"

"When industry and government are so closely linked, there is little difference between ‘private’ and ‘government’ censorship," he continued. "Suppression of free speech is not suddenly OK when it is contracted out to the private corporations that control the public square."

Kennedy wrote that the "Twitter Files proved that numerous government agencies, acting through the FBI, told Twitter whom to censor" and that "Twitter complied."

"Doubtless, Facebook, YouTube, and the rest received similar requests," Kennedy wrote.

"In the case of my interview with [Guart], [YouTube] probably acted on its own initiative," he continued. "It has internalized the political wishes of the establishment to the point where it knows what to censor without being told."