Sentence reduced for Joe Exotic
Joe Exotic, of Netflix’s “Tiger King” fame, aka Joseph Maldonado-Passage, has had his sentence in the murder-for-hire plot reduced by one year to 21 years, according to the courtroom sentencing sheet from the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma — Oklahoma City.
“We are unsatisfied with the court’s decision and will appeal. The main issues will be addressed in the Motion for New Trial,” John M. Phillips, Maldonado-Passage’s attorney, said to CNN via email.
Maldonado-Passage said in court, in part, “I have two non-curable diseases and now have to add cancer to that list. Please don’t make me deal with cancer in prison waiting on an appeal,” as provided to CNN by Phillips.
He went on to say he had spent 16 of the last 22 months in solitary confinement and isolation “being deprived of basic constitutional rights such as a fair trial, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, medical care — and the most basic and important aspect of life — social interaction.”
Maldonado-Passage was moved to a North Carolina federal medical treatment facility in November after receiving the biopsy results of an aggressive form of prostate cancer. Phillips told CNN via email he thinks Maldonado-Passage will be transferred back to the medical facility.
Maldonado-Passage was convicted in 2019 in a murder-for-hire plot against animal rights activist Carole Baskin as well as other crimes that include animal abuse. Baskin, who owns a tiger sanctuary in Florida and had secured a milliondollar judgment against him, had a long-standing feud with Maldonado-Passage that was chronicled in the “Tiger King” series.
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 harbor 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.