A federal judge re-sentenced Tiger King star Joe Exotic to 21 years in prison on a murder-for-hire charge, BBC News reports.
The 58-year-old's new prison sentence is only a year shorter than the previous 22-year sentence the former zookeeper was given in January 2020.
That year he was convicted of trying to hire two different men to kill animal rights activist and CEO of Big Cat Rescue, Carole Baskin.
Exotic - whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage - has always denied the crime.
However, a secretly recorded meeting showed the former exotic zoo manager offering $10,000 to an undercover government agent to kill Carole Baskin, the owner of a Florida animal sanctuary.
He allegedly instructed the agent to "cap her and drive off" during the December 2017 meeting. Exotic has prostate cancer and previously asked for a less harsh prison sentence.
"Please don't make me die in prison waiting for a chance to be free," Maldonado-Passage told the federal judge Friday, per the Associated Press.
However, it's reported that his attorneys already have plans underway to appeal the new sentence and petition for a new trial.
In court on Friday, Baskin told jurors that she continues to fear that Exotic could harm her. "He continues to harbor intense feelings of ill will towards me," she was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
Last summer, a court determined that Exotic's two separate murder-for-hire convictions be treated as one, because both had the aim of arranging Baskin's death. Exotic later asked to be released, writing in a letter published on Instagram that he had been diagnosed with "aggressive" prostate cancer.
"I don't want anyone's pity," he wrote. "I did not do this!" He hoped to go home and get treatment "or enjoy what life I have left with my loved ones", he said.
The second season of Tiger King was released in November 2021.
Amazon had also planned a series in which Nicolas Cage was to play the role of Exotic, but the project was scrapped after producers said that the story was "no longer relevant".
