Tiger King's Joe Exotic re-sentenced to 21 years in prison

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A US federal judge re-sentenced 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 cancer.

"Please don't make me die in prison waiting for a chance to be free," he 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.

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Joseph Maldonado aka Joe Exotic answers a question during an interview at the zoo he runs in Wynnewood, Okla on August 28, 2013

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Wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, Maldonado-Passage still had his trademark mullet hairstyle, but the bleach-blonde was fading to grey.

Baskin and her husband 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 said.

READ MORE: Joe Exotic 'will likely die in prison', attorneys say

Friday's court proceedings came about after a federal appeals court ruled last year that the prison term he's serving on a murder-for-hire conviction should be shortened.

Supporters packed the courtroom, some wearing animal-print masks and shirts that read "Free Joe Exotic".

His attorneys said they would appeal both the re-sentencing and petition for a new trial.

The former zookeeper was sentenced in January 2020 to 22 years in prison after he was convicted of trying to hire two different men to kill Baskin.

A three-judge panel of the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Maldonado-Passage that the court should have treated them as one conviction at sentencing because they both involved the same goal of killing Baskin, who runs a rescue sanctuary for big cats in Florida and had criticised Maldonado-Passage's treatment of animals.

Prosecutors said Maldonado-Passage offered $10,000 to an undercover FBI agent to kill Baskin during a recorded December 2017 meeting.

In the recording, he told the agent, "Just like follow her into a mall parking lot and just cap her and drive off."

Maldonado-Passage's attorneys have said their client — who once operated a zoo in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, about 105 kilometres south of Oklahoma City — wasn't being serious.

Maldonado-Passage, who maintains his innocence, also was convicted of killing five tigers, selling tiger cubs and falsifying wildlife records.

Source: 9News