‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic Resentenced Over Plot to Kill Carole Baskin

Author: Alex Cooper

Joe Exotic, the eccentric out star of the Netflix show Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness, has been resentenced to 21 years in prison for plotting to kill Carole Baskin, an animal welfare activist who also starred in the show.

Exotic’s sentence, handed down Friday, is a year less than his original sentence of 22 years. 

Exotic — whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage — had been convicted in 2020 of hiring hit men to kill Baskin. He has continued to maintain his innocence. The new sentencing comes after Exotic won an appeal over his last sentencing. While he was convicted of trying to hire two men to kill Baskin, the two convictions should have been considered as one during his sentencing, according to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

His legal team had asked for a lesser sentence of 7.5 years due to the Oklahoma zookeeper starting treatment for stage 1 prostate cancer.

“Please don’t make me die in prison waiting for a chance to be free,” Exotic told the federal judge who resentenced him on the charge, according to the Associated Press. 

Exotic, 58, appeared in court in an orange prison suit, and while he still sported his famous mullet, his hair had turned brown and gray from its usual bleach blond.

Baskin attended the sentencing with her husband, Howard Baskin. She told the judge she still fears Exotic.

“He continues to harbor intense feelings of ill will toward me,” she told the judge. Baskin added that she had continued to receive threatening communications over the past two years.

A member of Exotic’s defense team, Amy Hanna, told the judge that a long prison sentence would be a “death sentence for Joe that he doesn’t deserve.”

Supporters crowded the courtroom. Some of the Tiger King’s fans wore animal-print masks and wore shirts that read “Free Joe Exotic.”

His legal team plans to request a new trial.

“The defense submitted a series of attachments that showed excessive government involvement in the creation of the offense for which he’s been convicted,” lawyer Molly Parmer told reporters. “We are going to continue our post-conviction litigation, but we did preview for the court the evidence we have through our post-conviction investigation.”

In a meeting in December 2017, Exotic offered $10,000 to an undercover FBI agent to kill Baskin, according to prosecutors. He said in a recording, “Just like follow her into a mall parking lot and just cap her and drive off.”

Exotic said he wasn’t serious. He was also convicted of killing five tigers, selling tiger cubs, and falsifying wildlife records.

Original Article on The Advocate
Author: Alex Cooper