A U.S. federal judge resentenced Tiger King’s Joe Unique to 21 years in jail on Friday, decreasing his punishment via just a yr in spite of pleas from the former zookeeper for leniency as he starts remedy for most cancers.
“Please do not make me die in prison looking forward to an opportunity to be free,” he informed the pass judgement on who resentenced him on a murder-for-hire fee.
Joe Unique — whose actual name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage — was once convicted in a case related to animal welfare activist Carole Baskin. Both were featured in Netflix’s Tiger King: Homicide, Mayhem and Insanity.
Dressed In an orange prison jumpsuit, Maldonado-Passage nonetheless had his trademark mullet hairstyle, however the bleach-blond was fading to gray.
Baskin and her husband also attended the complaints, and he or she said she was once nervous that Maldonado-Passage could threaten her.
“He keeps to harbour excessive emotions of ill will towards me,” she stated.
a woman walks earlier a mural of Joseph (Joe Unique) Maldonado-Passage wearing a mask in Wynwood Artwork District in Miami, Fla on June 29, 2020. Maldonado-Passage was once firstly convicted to 22 years in jail in January 2020. (Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Pictures)
Maldonado-Passage to enchantment sentence
Friday’s court docket lawsuits came about after a federal appeals courtroom ruled closing year that the prison term he is serving on a murder-for-hire conviction should be shortened.
Supporters packed the court docket, a few dressed in animal-print mask and shirts that learn “Free Joe Unique.” His lawyers stated they might enchantment each the resentencing and petition for a brand new trial.
the former zookeeper used to be sentenced in January 2020 to 22 years in jail after he used to be convicted of looking to hire two different men to kill Baskin.
a three-pass judgement on panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Courtroom of Appeals agreed with Maldonado-Passage that the court must have treated them as one conviction at sentencing as a result of they each concerned the same objective of killing Baskin, who runs a rescue sanctuary for giant cats in Florida and had criticized Maldonado-Passage’s remedy of animals.
Prosecutors mentioned Maldonado-Passage offered $10,000 US to an undercover FBI agent to kill Baskin all the way through a recorded December 2017 meeting.
in the recording, he informed the agent, “similar to follow her right into a mall parking lot and just cap her and pressure off.” Maldonado-Passage’s legal professionals have stated their consumer — who once operated a zoo in Wynnewood, Okla., about ONE ZERO FIVE kilometres south of Oklahoma City — wasn’t being critical.
Maldonado-Passage, who keeps his innocence, additionally was convicted of killing five tigers, selling tiger cubs and falsifying wildlife data.