'It's been rough, it really has': Tiger King's Joe Exotic holds out hope for new trial, pardon from behind bars

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) -- The man at the center of an infamous pandemic-era documentary is seeking a new trial.

His name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, but he would become known to the world as Joe Exotic.

He is currently serving a 21-year prison sentence for hiring two men to kill his rival, Carole Baskin, and for illegally killing tigers in his care.

Exotic is hoping for a new trial or a presidential pardon in order to be released from prison.

During the pandemic, the Netflix series, Tiger King, became the guilty pleasure of more than 34 million Americans who were transfixed by the strange set of characters that were featured in the world of large, exotic animals.

Exotic owned a zoo of sorts in Oklahoma and allowed people to pose for pictures with, and to interact with, young tiger cubs.

In 2020, he was convicted of a murder-for-hire plot to kill Baskin.

Baskin had fought to shut down Exotic's Oklahoma zoo and others like it because she believed the animals were there being abused and even killed after they were too old to interact with paying customers.

Exotic is now in a Florida Panhandle prison, waiting for another trial related to the music used in the Netflix series.

He is also seeking an appeal in the Baskin case.

"I'm actually appealing my whole case, to overturn my conviction," Exotic said in an interview with Nexstar's WFLA from prison.

He said he now has prostate cancer and believes he has lung cancer.

"It's jail, you know," he said. "It's been rough, it really has."

WFLA's Jeff Patterson asked him what he now thinks of Baskin, after having years to think about her in prison.

"I still think that she is bats*** crazy and that she killed her husband," Exotic said. "But me and Carol, me and Carol made money off of each other for years."

Before the Tiger King series and even while it was being filmed, Exotic made no secret that he hated Baskin.

Prosecutors proved during his trial that he offered $3,000 to a friend, Allen Glover, to have Baskin killed.

Exotic still denies it happened and said Glover made it all up to get back at him.

"In my trial they showed the undercover video and Joe never offered him anything," Exotic said, referring to himself in the third person.

Prosecutors also proved during his trial that he offered money to an undercover FBI special agent to have Baskin killed.

"Joe just finally asked a question out of the blue, to get him out of my office," Exotic said, again speaking in third person. "Well how much do you charge? And he said $10,000 and if you watch the video that played at my trial, then Joe says, well Joe doesn't have $10,000."

Baskin has stayed away from interviews for the most part since the Tiger King series aired. She maintains she was misled by producers about what the show would be about.

Her husband, Howard Baskin, has never done a TV interview, until WFLA spoke with him. He politely declined to talk about Exotic.

What he does like to talk about is the "Big Cat Rescue Public Safety Act" that he and his wife worked to pass in Congress.

The act help shut down roadside petting zoos like the one Exotic had in Oklahoma.

"It was just a horrible industry," Howard Baskin said. "The cubs would be taken away from their mothers at birth, which that's a torment for any mamma."

The Baskins have now sold the property where they built "Big Cat Rescue" and have transferred the animals to another facility.

As for Exotic, he said if he is released from prison, he is done caring for the animals that made him famous.

"If I walk out of here tomorrow, Jeff, I'm never going to own another animal again," he said.