Tiger King’s Joe Exotic resentenced to 21 years in prison
- Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, was convicted in a case involving animal welfare activist Carole Baskin
- His sentence was reduced by a year despite pleas for leniency as he begins treatment for early-stage cancer
A federal judge resentenced “Tiger King” Joe Exotic to 21 years in prison on Friday, reducing his punishment by just a year despite pleas from the former zookeeper for leniency as he begins treatment for early-stage cancer.
“Please don’t make me die in prison waiting for a chance to be free,” he tearfully told a federal judge who resentenced him on a murder-for-hire charge.
Joe Exotic – whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage – was convicted in a case involving animal welfare activist Carole Baskin. Both were featured in Netflix’s Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.
Wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, Maldonado-Passage, 58, still had his trademark mullet hairstyle, but the bleach-blonde had faded to brown and grey.
Baskin and her husband, Howard Baskin, also attended the proceedings, and she said she was fearful that Maldonado-Passage could threaten her.
“He continues to harbour intense feelings of ill will toward me,” she told the judge.
Baskin said even with Maldonado-Passage in prison, she has continued to receive “vile, abusive and threatening communications” over the last two years. She told the judge she believes Maldonado-Passage poses an even more serious threat to her now that he has a larger group of supporters because of the popularity of the Netflix series.