(CN) — The big cat will remain in the big house, the 10th Circuit ruled on Wednesday, but the infamous “Tiger King’s” 22-year prison sentence has been remanded to the district court for a second calculation.
Joe Exotic aka Joseph Maldonado-Passage, 57, was convicted in 2019 in Oklahoma City federal court on two counts of murder-for-hire, eight counts of violating the Lacey Act for falsifying wildlife records and nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act. Jurors concluded he tried to hire a hitman for $10,000 to kill rival tiger enthusiast Carole Baskin.
While Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Scott Palk considered each count of murder-for-hire as separate, the federal appeals court sided with Maldonado-Passage’s argument that the similar charges should be grouped together.
"Here, Baskin was neither murdered multiple times nor assaulted multiple times during attempted murders. Her harm was one sustained, ongoing harm. She learned that Maldonado-Passage intended to have her killed and lived with that fear,” wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Gregory Phillips, a Barack Obama appointee, in a 22-page opinion.
Under this new consideration, Maldonado-Passage faces a sentence of 20 to 22 years in prison, rather than the 22 to 27.5 range initially before the court.
Maldonado-Passage, also known as the Tiger King, Joe Exotic and Joe Gone Wild acclaimed fame after the 2020 Netflix docseries “Tiger King” dove into his enterprise, the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Wynnewood, Oklahoma.
Released in the early months of the pandemic, over 34 million unique viewers streamed the show in March 2020.
The show follows several of the eccentric personalities in the tiger enthusiast community and focuses on Exotic’s obsessive behavior towards rival Baskin after he entered into a $1 million settlement in a trademark case she filed against him.
Baskin has gotten the last laugh, as a federal judge has since awarded her control of Exotic’s former zoo property in Wynnewood, Oklahoma. U.S. District Judge Scott Palk ruled in June the 16.4-acre property was fraudulently transferred from Exotic to his mother to keep it away from Baskin.
Palk also oversaw Exotic’s criminal trial and is presiding over a $93 million lawsuit Exotic filed, representing himself, against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of Interior and several of his perceived enemies. He claims he is the victim of a vast conspiracy to take his animals away from him.
In Wednesday’s order, the 10th Circuit called the struggle between Baskin and Maldonado-Passage "a rivalry made in heaven.”
The appeals panel denied Maldonado-Passage’s request for a new trial after Baskins was allowed to attend the trial and then testify as a witness.
“In short, because Maldonado-Passage’s plan to have Baskin murdered was both the but-for and proximate cause of these emotional and pecuniary injuries, the district court acted within its discretion in allowing Baskin to stay in the courtroom as a crime victim under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act,” Phillips wrote.
In a letter entered into the docket in February, Maldonado-Passage asked the court to allow him to present his case pro se since he had little contact with his appeals attorney while in prison.
"During this entire year I have been kept separated from the rest of the population of the prison to avoid me talking to the press or telling my story to the truth as what really happened,” Maldonado-Passage wrote.
Maldonado-Passage also claimed the wildlife charges should have been severed from the murder-for-hire claims during his trial.
“The wildlife charges had nothing to do with the murder for hire charges other then for the government to parade half rotten heads of tigers around in front of the Jury for the 5 days prior to even addressing Murder for Hire,” Maldonado-Passage wrote.
The letter went unread by the court as he was represented by council and oral argument had already been submitted.
George W. Bush appointed U.S. Circuit Judge Harris Hartz and George H.W. Bush appointed Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Paul Joseph Kelly Jr. rounded out the panel.
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