Man faces jail for lemur theft case
The man accused of last year’s kidnapping of Maki, the ringtailed lemur from the San Francisco Zoo, made his first appearance in federal court this week.
If convicted of his alleged violations of the federal Endangered Species Act, Cory McGilloway, 31, faces up to a year in jail and as much as $50,000 in fines, according to prosecutors.
Maki, at 21 one of the oldest of the San Francisco Zoo’s four endangered ringtailed lemurs, was stolen from his enclosure on Oct. 13. Two days later, 5yearold James Trinh spotted Maki in the parking lot of Hope Lutheran Day School in Daly City. Zoo officials recovered the lemur there and returned him to his enclosure.
The same day Maki was found, McGilloway was arrested in Marin County on suspicion of stealing a Marin Sanitary Service truck. He became a suspect in the missing-lemur case after police found pictures of Maki on his phone.
Earlier that day, a woman reported to the San Francisco Police Department that she had taken a video of a man on Treasure Island the day before walking a lemur on a leash. The man in the video “had distinctive tattoos and is believed to be McGilloway,” federal prosecutors said.
California residents are banned from owning lemurs, which are native to Madagascar, due to their endangered status.
McGilloway, of Los Angeles, made his first court appearance in San Francisco Superior Court in January in the zoo theft of Maki, which is separate from the federal case related to the Endangered Species Act.
He was released from custody but ordered to stay away from the zoo and to follow the probation terms he received in Marin County on the truck theft case as he awaited trial on seconddegree burglary, grand theft and vandalism charges in the Maki case in San Francisco. While on probation, he was ordered to attend weekly mental health classes and take his prescribed medication, The Chronicle previously reported.
However, authorities said he was arrested again after he failed to show up for a 2020 court appearance, the Mercury News reported. According to prosecutors, he is currently in custody in Los Angeles pending extradition to the Bay Area.
He made his appearance in federal court virtually, with his next hearing set for July.
Though “hungry, dehydrated, and agitated” when he was first recovered according to prosecuters, Maki is now back at the zoo and doing well. The zoo tweeted on Tuesday that he was enjoying the sun and “having a good day.”