A federal decide resentenced “Tiger King” Joe Unique to 21 years in jail on Friday, decreasing his punishment via only a yr in spite of pleas from the previous zookeeper for leniency as he starts remedy for most cancers.
“Please don’t make me die in jail looking ahead to an opportunity to be loose,” he advised a federal decide who resentenced him on a murder-for-hire fee.
Joe Unique — whose actual title is Joseph Maldonado-Passage — used to be convicted in a case involving animal welfare activist Carole Baskin. Each have been featured in Netflix’s “Tiger King: Homicide, Mayhem and Insanity.”
Dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit, Maldonado-Passage nonetheless had his trademark mullet coiffure, however the bleach-blonde used to be fading to grey.
Baskin and her husband additionally attended the court cases, and she or he stated she used to be apprehensive that Maldonado-Passage may threaten her.
“He continues to harbor intense emotions of unwell will towards me,” she stated.
Friday’s court docket court cases happened after a federal appeals court docket dominated closing yr that the jail time period he’s serving on a murder-for-hire conviction must be shortened.
Supporters packed the court docket, some dressed in animal-print mask and shirts that learn “Loose Joe Unique.” His lawyers stated they might attraction each the resentencing and petition for a brand new trial.
The previous zookeeper used to be sentenced in January 2020 to 22 years in jail after he used to be convicted of looking to lease two other males to kill Baskin. A 3-judge panel of the tenth U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals agreed with Maldonado-Passage that the court docket must have handled them as one conviction at sentencing as a result of they each concerned the similar objective of killing Baskin, who runs a rescue sanctuary for large cats in Florida and had criticized Maldonado-Passage’s remedy of animals.
Prosecutors stated Maldonado-Passage introduced $10,000 to an undercover FBI agent to kill Baskin right through a recorded December 2017 assembly. Within the recording, he advised the agent, “Similar to apply her right into a mall parking space and simply cap her and force off.” Maldonado-Passage’s lawyers have stated their shopper — who as soon as operated a zoo in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) south of Oklahoma Town — wasn’t being critical.
Maldonado-Passage, who maintains his innocence, additionally used to be convicted of killing 5 tigers, promoting tiger cubs and falsifying natural world information.