Federal appeals court vacates 'Tiger King' Joe Exotic sentence in the murder-for-hire plot against Carole Baskin The appeals court vacated his sentence but upheld his conviction. Exotic is asking President Joe Biden for a pardon. Author: 10 Tampa Bay Updated: 6:59 PM CDT July 14, 2021 OKLAHOMA CITY — 'Tiger King' star Joe Exotic will be re-sentenced after being convicted last year in a murder-for-hire plot against Carole Baskin, the CEO of Tampa's Big Cat Rescue. Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, had appealed his murder-for-hire convictions, arguing a district court made the wrong decision by allowing Carole Baskin to attend the whole trial – despite her being listed as a government witness. The 58-year-old also argued the trial court should've grouped his two murder-for-hire convictions together when calculating a sentence because the charges involved the same person.