OKLAHOMA CITY—A federal jury on April 2 convicted a former Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate and zookeeper in an attempted murder-for-hire plot.
Jurors returned the guilty verdict following six days of testimony in the trial of Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, 56, who was accused of trying to arrange the killing of Florida animal sanctuary founder Carole Baskin, who criticized his treatment of animals. Baskin wasn’t harmed.
Maldonado-Passage, known as “Joe Exotic,” was also found guilty in the deaths of five tigers, and selling and offering to sell tiger cubs in violation of the Endangered Species Act.
U.S. District Judge Scott Palk did not set a sentencing date for Maldonado-Passage, who could face more than 20 years in prison.
Maldonado-Passage testified in his own defense on April 1 that although disagreements with Baskin spilled over into his social media posts, he never truly wanted her dead.
“You want to know why Carole Baskin better never, ever, ever see me face-to-face ever, ever, ever again,” he said in the video, just before firing a revolver.
Maldonado-Passage also pretended to dig a grave for Baskin and threatening to mail her rattlesnakes.
“He’s been threatening me for many, many years,” Baskin told The Oklahoman.
Brittany Peet, an attorney for the animal rights organization PETA, was the first defense witness for Maldonado-Passage.
Peet said Maldonado-Passage told her he wanted out of the industry and to become a bartender in Central America as the defense sought to show he was never serious about arranging the death of Baskin in the videos.
Prosecutors alleged Maldonado-Passage tried to hire two separate people to kill the woman. One of the unidentified people he sought to hire connected him with an undercover FBI agent, who met with Maldonado-Passage in December 2017.
Prosecutors said Maldonado-Passage offered $10,000 to the undercover FBI agent to kill Baskin during a December 2017 meeting that was recorded and played for the jury.
In the recording he told the agent, “Just like follow her into a mall parking lot and just cap her and drive off.”
Known for his blond mullet and expletive-laden rants on YouTube, Maldonado-Passage finished third in a three-way Libertarian primary in 2018.
Garvin County Sheriff Larry Rhodes said at the time that witnesses reported Travis Maldonado put a loaded firearm to his head and pulled the trigger to prove the weapon would not fire with the magazine removed.
Maldonado married another man, Dillon Jacob Passage, in December, court records show.
Maldonado-Passage also appeared on John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” when he was a 2016 write-in candidate for president.
