Joe Exotic of 'Tiger King' fame loses bid to get a retrial for murder-for-hire case

Joe Exotic will not be getting a new trial.

The former Oklahoma zookeeper and 2024 presidential candidate became known worldwide early in the pandemic because of Netflix. He filed a motion for a retrial last year in his murder-for-hire case after being resentenced.

He filed a second motion Nov. 20.

He claims witnesses conspired with federal prosecutors and investigators to withhold and make up evidence "in efforts to secure the wrongful conviction."

His trial judge on Nov. 21 rejected those complaints, saying the big cat breeder's own words were "the most credible and damning evidence" of his intent.

"Defendant’s allegations, whether viewed individually or cumulatively, are incapable of overcoming the strong, credible evidence of guilt set forth in the record," U.S. District Judge Scott Palk said in a 73-page order.

"Contrary to his assertions, Defendant received a fair trial, and the jury returned a reasonable and just verdict."

An appeal of the denial is planned.

Joe Exotic was found guilty in 2019 in Oklahoma City federal court. Jurors convicted him of hiring two men to kill his chief critic, Carole Baskin, and of crimes involving his zoo animals.

He is serving 21 years in prison.

How did imprisoned zookeeper become known around the world?

The self-described "gay, gun-carrying redneck with a mullet" became famous when Netflix released "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness" on March 20, 2020.

The true-crime documentary series was a somewhat sympathetic look at his life, his case and his now closed zoo in Wynnewood. Millions watched while in pandemic-induced lockdowns, making it a breakout hit.

Joe Exotic was born Joseph Allen Schreibvogel, but his name has changed over the years depending on his marital status. The latest change — to Joseph Allen Maldonado — came in January after a divorce. He is 60.

Baskin said Nov. 21 she was very relieved by the judge's decision.

"Maldonado has never shown any remorse for the crimes against me and against animals that he clearly committed," she told The Oklahoman in an email. "Even today Maldonado continues through surrogates to regularly disparage me and my husband online, actions that he well knows could incite violence. He is dangerous and he is right where he belongs."

Baskin is a Florida animal rights activist who successfully sued Joe Exotic for more than $1 million. She had been outspoken against a major attraction at his zoo, so-called play times with tiger cubs.

Joe Exotic maintains he was set up by a former business partner, Jeff Lowe.

More: Joe Exotic made tiger cub petting the main attraction at his roadside zoo; now it's banned

In his new trial requests, he told the judge a key prosecution witness, Allen Glover, has admitted to lying in court and "to a lot of people" to keep Lowe out of trouble.

Glover, an ex-convict, worked at the zoo. He told jurors that Joe Exotic paid him $3,000 in 2017 to kill Baskin. "I said I'd cut her head off," Glover testified. "He was fine with it."

He also testified he never intended to go through with the plot and used the money to party on a Florida beach instead.

In a 2021 affidavit, Glover said he committed perjury during his trial testimony "regarding my involvement as the hitman."

"Jeff Lowe created the entire murder-for-hire plot from start to finish," he also said in the affidavit. He said Lowe later repeatedly rehearsed with him what to say to federal agents to get Joe Exotic indicted.

He said in the affidavit that Joe Exotic "always joked about wishing Carole Baskin was gone because of the financial stress she caused him."

"No one ever took him seriously."

He also claimed he and Lowe plotted at one point to kill Joe Exotic at the zoo. "The plan was to tie a wire between two poles on a path ... so that it would decapitate him," he said.

In his order, the judge concluded that Glover's recantation does not entitle Joe Exotic to a new trial "because it would not probably produce an acquittal."

He did agree Glover was credible in his recantation on some points but not on others.

"Defendant claims 'the first murder for hire count depended almost entirely on Glover’s testimony; without it there could have been no indictment and no evidence to carry the case to the jury,'" the judge wrote. "But this argument ignores the strongest, most credible evidence against Defendant — his own words.

"Even assuming the jury discounted Mr. Glover’s credibility, the Court’s confidence in the outcome of the trial is not undermined because Defendant’s statements provide overwhelming, powerful evidence of his guilt."

The judge pointed out that Joe Exotic had told an informant in a secretly recorded phone call in 2017 that if Glover got busted "me and Jeff are just, we got our story down to where we fired the (expletive) and he just went off the deep end."

The judge noted that Joe Exotic in a 2018 conversation about a second hitman said "that one of Jeff’s run off with my money and never heard from him again."

Joe Exotic offered in 2017 to pay $10,000 to an undercover FBI agent posing as a hitman to shoot Baskin, according to testimony at his trial. "Just like follow her into a mall parking lot and just cap her and drive off," he said in a Dec. 8, 2017, recording played for jurors.

At trial, Joe Exotic said he had a gut feeling at the time the guy was an undercover officer so he never agreed to any murder and never did anything further to make it happen.

He told jurors he gave Glover $3,000, at Lowe's direction, to travel to South Carolina to take care of legal problems.

What happens now?

His attorney said Wednesday they will now go to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

"Justice would never come from Palk. We knew that," Florida attorney John Phillips wrote in an Instagram post. "All we have wanted for 2 years is to address the merits of the wrongful conviction with the appellate court."

The attorney called Palk biased. He alleged Palk denied the retrial to protect his legacy and fellow judge Amanda Maxfield Green.

"Shameful," the attorney wrote.

Maxfield Green was the lead prosecutor at Joe Exotic's trial. She became a magistrate judge in 2020.

How has his prison sentence changed?

In January 2020, the trial judge sentenced Joe Exotic to 22 years in prison. "Despite what you may believe, you are not the only in-step person in an out-of-step world," Palk told him.

The federal appeals court in Denver ruled in 2021 that Palk made a mistake.

The judge resentenced him early last year to 21 years. The appeals court has since upheld that punishment.

Is he really running for public office?

Joe Exotic ran for president in 2016 as an independent. He got 962 votes, according to the Federal Election Commission.

He ran for governor of Oklahoma in 2018 as a Libertarian. He came in third in the primary, getting only 664 votes.

He announced in March he was running for president again. "Yes, I know I am in Federal Prison and you might think this is a joke but it's not. It is my Constitutional right to do this even from here," he said on his campaign website.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: What happened to Joe Exotic? An update on his bid for retrial