‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic resentenced to 21 years in jail

A federal choose resentenced “Tiger King” Joe Exotic to 21 years in jail on Friday, lowering his punishment by only a yr regardless of pleas from the previous zookeeper for leniency as he begins remedy for most cancers.
“Please don’t make me die in prison waiting for a chance to be free,” he informed a federal choose who resentenced him on a murder-for-hire cost.
Joe Exotic — whose actual title is Joseph Maldonado-Passage — was convicted in a case involving animal welfare activist Carole Baskin. Both had been featured in Netflix’s “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.”

Wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, Maldonado-Passage nonetheless had his trademark mullet coiffure, however the bleach-blonde was fading to grey.Baskin and her husband additionally attended the proceedings, and she or he stated she was fearful that Maldonado-Passage might threaten her.
“He continues to harbor intense feelings of ill will toward me,” she stated.
Friday’s court docket proceedings happened after a federal appeals court docket dominated final yr that the jail time period he’s serving on a murder-for-hire conviction ought to be shortened.
Supporters packed the courtroom, some carrying animal-print masks and shirts that learn “Free Joe Exotic.” His attorneys stated they’d enchantment each the resentencing and petition for a brand new trial.

The former zookeeper was sentenced in January 2020 to 22 years in jail after he was convicted of making an attempt to rent two totally different males to kill Baskin. A 3-judge panel of the tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Maldonado-Passage that the court docket ought to have handled them as one conviction at sentencing as a result of they each concerned the identical purpose of killing Baskin, who runs a rescue sanctuary for giant cats in Florida and had criticized Maldonado-Passage’s remedy of animals.
Prosecutors stated Maldonado-Passage provided $10,000 to an undercover FBI agent to kill Baskin throughout a recorded December 2017 assembly. In the recording, he informed the agent, “Just like follow her into a mall parking lot and just cap her and drive off.” Maldonado-Passage’s attorneys have stated their consumer — who as soon as operated a zoo in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City — wasn’t being critical.
Maldonado-Passage, who maintains his innocence, additionally was convicted of killing 5 tigers, promoting tiger cubs and falsifying wildlife data.