A juror who helped convict a former Oklahoma zookeeper during his murder-for-hire trial has slammed the Netflix series Tiger King for making him out to be ‘almost a victim’.
Joseph Maldonado-Passage, also known as Joe Exotic, was sentenced to 22 years in prison in April 2019 for trying to arrange the killing of Carole Baskin, a Florida animal sanctuary founder who criticized his treatment of animals.
The former zookeeper, who maintains his innocence, was also sentenced for killing five tigers, selling tiger cubs and falsifying wildlife records.
Maldonado-Passage is prominently featured in the recently released Netflix documentary, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, a series that juror, Kristin, believes didn’t capture the whole story.
‘They made him out to be almost a victim,’ Kristin told Fox Nation host Nancy Grace for the new series, A Tiger King Investigation with Nancy Grace.
Joseph Maldonado-Passage, also known as Joe Exotic, is featured in the Netflix documentary, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, a series that juror, Kristin (right), believes didn’t capture the whole story. She said he was portrayed as a ‘lovable’ guy
She claimed the series portrayed Maldonado-Passage as ‘lovable’ and a ‘good guy’.
Kristin, who wanted to keep her last name private, said: ‘It just wasn’t even the same story. It did a huge injustice to the jury because now people think that we convicted him based on absolutely nothing.’
Grace then asked Kristin what was the strongest evidence requiring the hitman counts.
Kristin told the host about a long recording about Maldonado-Passage meeting with an apparent hitman.
‘We could have convicted on both murder for hire counts based on one sentence that Joe said, which was “the first guy that I hired to kill her ran away with my $3,000. Now we’re going to try this again,”‘ Kristin said.
Last week Maldonado-Passage was granted an extra month to argue why his lawsuit challenging the convictions shouldn’t be dismissed.
Joseph Maldonado-Passage, also known as Joe Exotic, was sentenced to 22 years in prison in April 2019
He was convicted for trying to arrange the killing of Carole Baskin (pictured) a Florida animal sanctuary founder who criticized his treatment of animals
Maldonado-Passage filed a federal lawsuit in March against the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Department of the Interior, and the assistant US attorney who prosecuted him and several witnesses.
He’s seeking nearly $94million in damages, claiming that he was convicted based on false and perjured testimony.
A federal judge decided to recommend dismissing his lawsuit and provided an April 28 deadline for objection filing.
Tiger King held the No. 1 spot on Netflix’s top 10 most streamed list for 25 days. Maldonado-Passage is pictured
On Thursday, US District Judge Scott Palk extended that deadline to May 28 after Maldonado-Passage provided a handwritten letter requesting at least 30 days to respond.
In the letter, Maldonado-Passage wrote that he is being isolated at the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, with ‘(no access to a computer, phone, email or library)’.
On April 8, President Donald Trump told a New York Post reporter he’d ‘look into’ possibly pardoning Maldonado-Passage, who ran for President in 2016 and Oklahoma Governor in 2018.
Tiger King held the No. 1 spot on Netflix’s top 10 most streamed list for 25 days straight.
The series became a pop culture phenomenon in the age of COVID-19 quarantine, with a reported 34.3 million people streaming the eight-part documentary in the first 10 days of its release.
That topped season 2 of Netflix’s Stranger Things, which had 31.2 million unique viewers in its first 10 days.