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'Tiger King' Joe Exotic announces engagement from prison: 'Meet Jorge Marquez'

By Chris Williams
Published  October 30, 2024 10:33am CDT
Tiger King
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Joseph "Joe Exotic" Maldonado booking photos, 2018 and 2024. (Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office)

The Brief

    • Joe Exotic, "Tiger King" star, announced his engagement from prison to 33-year-old Jorge Marquez from Mexico.
    • He hopes to marry Marquez in prison and seek asylum for him or leave the U.S. together.
    • Serving a 21-year sentence, Exotic was convicted in a murder plot against Carole Baskin and wildlife offenses.

"Tiger King" star Joe Exotic announced from prison that he is now engaged. 

"Meet Jorge Marquez he is 33," he posted on social media. "He is so amazing and is from Mexico."

"Now, the quest of getting married in prison and getting him asylum or we be leaving America when we both get out," he continued. "Either way, I wish I would have met him long ago."

Joe Exotic — whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage — was convicted in a case involving animal welfare activist Carole Baskin. Both were featured in Netflix’s "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness."

RELATED: 'Tiger King' Joe Exotic resentenced to 21 years for murder-for-hire plot

 He's currently serving a 21-year sentence in prison, after his punishment was reduced to a year by a judge in 2022. 

'Joe Exotic' legal team seeks official pardon from Trump

A video featuring this legal team features a montage of Maldonado-Passage with tigers before his arrest as well as shots of a giant tour bus with lettering on the side that reads, "PRESIDENT TRUMP Please Pardon JOE EXOTIC."

The former zookeeper  was convicted of trying to hire two different men to kill Baskin. A three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Maldonado-Passage that the court should have treated them as one conviction at sentencing because they both involved the same goal of killing Baskin, who runs a rescue sanctuary for big cats in Florida and had criticized Maldonado-Passage’s treatment of animals.

Carol Baskin of Tiger King says she is receiving death threats

Following the success of the Netflix documentary, Carol Baskin of Tiger King said she received death threats.

Prosecutors said Maldonado-Passage offered $10,000 to an undercover FBI agent to kill Baskin during a recorded December 2017 meeting. In the recording, he told the agent, "Just like follow her into a mall parking lot and just cap her and drive off." Maldonado-Passage’s attorneys have said their client — who once operated a zoo in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City — wasn’t being serious.

Maldonado-Passage, who maintains his innocence, also was convicted of killing five tigers, selling tiger cubs and falsifying wildlife records.

In 2021, Maldonado-Passage said he was battling prostate cancer. 

"It is with a sad face that I have to tell you ... that my prostate biopsy’s came back with an aggressive cancer," he wrote on social media. 

The Source

  • The information in the story came from the X account belonging to Joe Exotic. The Associated Press also contributed to this report. This story was reported from Los Angeles.