FORT WORTH, Texas — Joseph Maldonado-Passage, also known as "Joe Exotic," will be resentenced after a judge vacated his existing sentence on Wednesday, according to multiple reports.
KFOR and KOCO are among the new outlets reporting that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th District has ordered the “Tiger King” star to be resentenced regarding his conviction in a murder-for-hire plot.
When Maldonado-Passage was originally sentenced, a judge sentenced the man’s two murder-for-hire counts separately, meaning he got time for each charge. Now, a judge will group those two counts together and give Maldonado-Passage one sentence for both counts, KOCO reports.
In April of 2019, a federal jury found Maldonado-Passage guilty on two murder-for-hire counts after he allegedly gave a man $3,000 to travel from Oklahoma to South Carolina and then to Florida to kill Carole Baskin, who was his adversary on the Netflix series they appeared on. Baskin, a critic of Maldonado-Passage, owns a tiger refuge in Florida and had secured a million-dollar judgment against the man’s park.
Maldonado-Passage was also found guilty on eight counts of violating the Lacey Act for falsifying wildlife records, and nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act.
In January of 2020, Maldonado-Passage was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
After his sentencing, Maldonado-Passage attempted to have former President Donald Trump pardon him, but the Republican didn’t end up doing so.
Maldonado-Passage is currently serving his time at a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas.
