‘Tiger King’ achieves a one-year reduction in his sentence: he will be in prison for 21 years

A judge lowered this Friday to 21 years the sentence of Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, the exotic animal collector known as Joe Exotic and protagonist of the popular Netflix series Tiger Kingfor having planned kill an animal welfare advocate, Carole Baskin.

A federal judge reviewed the star’s sentence Tiger King today in Oklahoma City, the capital of the homonymous state, because of an appeal for the way the sentences were calculated when in 2020 he was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

In 2018 Maldonado-Passage, former owner of the Greater Wynnewood Animal Park, was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of planning a murder-for-hire.

Then in January 2020, was sentenced to 22 years in prison after being found guilty of trying to hire two different men to kill Carole Baskin, owner of a big cat sanctuary in Florida.

So much Joe Exotic as Baskin were the stars of Tiger King, the Netflix series released in 2020.

According to the internet description of the audiovisual platform itself about the plot of the series, “a zoo owner loses control amid a cast of eccentric characters in this true story of murder for hire from the underworld of big cat breeding ”.

While in prison, Maldonado-Passage revealed in November 2021 that he was discovered “aggressive cancer” after undergoing a prostate exam and unsuccessfully asked to be released.

Maldonado-Passage took advantage of his popularity to request a presidential pardon to the then US president, Donald Trump (2017-2021), which was not granted.

As stated today ABC News, the reason for the revision of the sentence was that in the first trial the two crimes for which he was accused were treated separately and, therefore, the sentence to be imposed was not calculated correctly.

The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit agreed with Maldonado-Passage that the court should have treated them as one sentence at the time of sentencing, because both involved the same goal of killing the 60-year-old Baskin.

Baskin, who ran a big cat rescue sanctuary in Florida, had criticized Maldonado-Passage’s treatment of the animals.

As reported today by local channel 4 kfor.com Citing the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Oklahoma, Maldonado-Passage offered a person $3,000 to travel from Oklahoma to Florida to carry out Baskin’s murder and “allegedly agreed to pay thousands more after the fact”.

Lawyers for Maldonado-Passage have said their client, who once operated a zoo in Wynnewood, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City, was not serious.

Maldonado-Passage, who has thus far maintained his innocence, was also indicted by a grand jury on an additional 19 wildlife charges, including violating the Endangered Species Act.

The prosecution argues that shot and killed five tigers in October 2017 to make room in cages for other big cats, and sold tiger cubs to raise money. (I)