OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – The U.S. tenth District Court docket has ordered Joseph Maldonado-Passage, aka Joe Unique, be resentenced following his conviction within the murder-for-hire plot of Massive Cat Rescue’s Carole Baskin.
In response to court docket paperwork, the choose affirmed Maldonado-Passage’s conviction however has determined to vacate the sentence and remand for resentencing.
In 2018, Joseph Maldonado-Passage, higher often called “Joe Unique” and former proprietor of the Higher Wynnewood Animal Park, was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of murder-for-hire.
Prosecutors say Maldonado-Passage gave an individual $3,000 to journey from Oklahoma to Florida to hold out the homicide of massive cat activist Carole Baskin and “allegedly agreed to pay 1000’s extra after the deed,” stated the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Western District of Oklahoma.
Officers supplied proof within the type of recordings of Maldonado-Passage negotiating the hiring of an undercover FBI agent, who was posing as a hitman. When speaking about cost, Maldonado-Passage reportedly stated, “I’ll simply promote a bunch of tigers.”
The meant goal of the hit was Carole Baskin, a chief critic of Maldonado-Passage. Baskin efficiently sued Maldonado-Passage for trademark infringement in 2011, and was outspoken in regards to the therapy of animals on the park.
The protection claimed their consumer was framed. They are saying he was all speak and had no intention of wanting Baskin useless.
The previous Higher Wynnewood Animal Park proprietor was discovered responsible on all counts in 2019.
He was in the end sentenced to a complete of twenty-two years in jail for each the murder-for-hire plot and a number of other wildlife fees. Officers say he was sentenced to 9 years in jail for every of the murder-for-hire convictions, and 4 years for the wildlife violations.
Now, a choose for the U.S. tenth District Court docket says though the conviction stays, the sentencing should be reconsidered.
“We maintain that the district court docket acted inside its discretion by permitting Baskin to attend the complete trial proceedings regardless of her being listed as a authorities witness, however that it erred by not grouping the 2 murder-for-hire convictions at sentencing,” stated the attraction.
The choose agreed with the attraction, saying, “Though the district court docket apparently thought that the 2 murder-for-hire plots shared a standard legal goal, it mistakenly (though fairly understandably)
thought that grouping wouldn’t be correct except they have been additionally a part of the identical course of conduct. This error in decoding the rules requires reversal.”
Joe Unique Attraction by KayleeDD on Scribd
Maldonado-Passage will stay in custody till resentencing could be decided.
