On Monday, a federal judge in Oklahoma scheduled a resentencing date for “Tiger King” star Joe Exotic, who received a 22- to 27-year sentence for violating federal wildlife laws and devising a murder-for-hire plot targeting controversial animal activist Carole Baskin.
KOCO reported that resentencing for Exotic, 58, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is scheduled for January 28. Exotic’s legal team argued that the two criminal counts for the murder-for-hire plot should have been combined at his January 2020 sentencing — which would have lowered his sentence by more than four years.
Exotic was initially sentenced to 22 to 27 years in federal prison. However, in June 2021, a federal appeals court ruled he should have received a sentence between 17-and-a-half years and just under 22 years. As a result, the federal court ordered the trial court to resentence him.
In late November, Exotic was transferred from Fort Worth Medical Center in Texas to Butner Medical Center in North Carolina to undergo treatment for prostate cancer. The move came months after Exotic reportedly completed a blood test that confirmed he had cancer.
According to the New York Post, Exotic’s legal team announced last month that the “Tiger King” star was delaying cancer treatment until after resentencing.
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[Featured image: Joe Exotic/AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File]
