Hello Everybody, 

This is how I think the trial went.  Based on everything I’ve been told, however, they never had a case to begin with. Even with the tape introduced by the undercover fed and James Garretson’s involvement in the case, the prosecutors only found “evidence” for the grand jury after Jeff Lowe and Allen Glover called and claimed that Joe had paid Allen 3000 dollars to kill Carol Baskin. This was their first and biggest mistake: taking two felons at their word with no substantial evidence other than the tape and hearsay. Again I wasn’t there, this is just what I’ve learned about the case, partially from what the US attorney Amanda Green says in the Tiger King documentary. But anyway, let’s get to the tigers he killed despite them supposedly being healthy. The only reason they dug up those tiger skulls with shotgun holes in them was for the shock value. Nobody bothered to dig up the rest of the buried skeletons to see their deformed legs and claws. Simply looking at the heads alone, you can see teeth missing and their roots showing, clearly indicating these tigers were in pain. I was at the zoo once while it happened. I didn’t see it myself, but I knew that Joseph was putting down the older sick cats before we left the zoo because Jeff Lowe had no idea how to take care of them. I don’t think anyone knows that he had a vet there to help euthanize the sick cats. 

So here’s my big question: Why the hell didn’t they summon or subpoena me? I was with Joseph morning, noon, and night the months following his husband’s death. I went home a week here and there for medical stuff, but never for too long. John Reinke was also never given the opportunity to testify and he was park manager for fourteen years! I could write a list of people that should’ve been called up but it’d be a mile long. The only people who his lawyers got to testify during the trial were Joseph and a lawyer from PETA. Why would you have a PETA lawyer testify on an animal abuse case? Why would you allow the defendant to testify? Any first-year law student knows better than that. 

Now we can get into how they managed to work the whole murder for hire thing into a “we hate Joseph” thing. The prosecutors started off with the shock value of the tiger heads with big holes in them, then they told the jury that he killed the cats in order to free up more room for the healthier ones. Well, I think that’s absolutely ridiculous. We moved out plenty of cats and there was more than enough room for all of them. Some of the tigers had been living there for more than eighteen years. But after the jury hears all of these horrific claims they’re convinced he’s a monster. Then, they add the murder for hire charges because they don’t have enough evidence to convict him for the dead tigers in November of 2018. Allen Glover took the stand and admitted how much he hated Joseph, calling him an asshole and god knows what else. Erik Cowie loved Joseph and said so in a lot of footage. Now all of a sudden he hates Joseph because he “kills cats and deserves to be punished”. I was Erik’s roommate for two years and could have discredited him in seconds. He was pissed because Joseph took his favorite cats and moved them to another place; Erik was heartbroken. But Joseph had a deal where Erik could go with the cats on the condition that he quit drinking. Of course, Erik didn’t want to give up alcohol, so he wasn’t allowed to move with the tigers. 

Oh, and before I forget, I bought Allen Glover’s ticket to South Carolina with my PayPal. They definitely knew this because Joseph sent me a letter about it. You would think they’d call me in as a witness at some point, right? The money that Allen got was a check from the park if I remember correctly, however it could have been Jeff’s signature that was stamped on there. Jeff Lowe is always posting on Facebook about how he’d been setting Joseph up for over a year, but Jeff was never called in to testify either. James Garretson says that Jeff offered him 100,000 dollars to set Joseph up and that’s why he got involved again. For some reason, nobody was bothered by this. 

It’s obvious everybody had some problems with the feds that they wanted to be swept under the rug. James Garretson was being investigated for credit card fraud among other things. Jeff Lowe had just gotten arrested in Vegas for gun and drug possessions, as well as animal abuse. Can you say, “let’s make a deal to save my ass”? The woman who Joseph trusted to bring his phones, black book, and QuickBooks accounts to his attorney’s office decided she would take it upon herself to download them onto her personal computer, read them, and then give them to the US attorney simply because she was in a fight with Joseph’s husband, Dillon. Now she’s posting all the information I sent to Erik on her Facebook. I also spoke with Joe’s attorney Kyle Wackenheim quite a bit. I told him that Jeff asked me personally if I could get someone to kill Carol. I assume he asked me to do that because I’m from Boston and people think we’re all a part of some gang. I got a call from Kyle the Thursday before the trial asking if I would be there. I asked him why he didn’t request me sooner and how on earth he expected me to get there in time. Kyle told me that I wasn’t being subpoenaed, he just wanted to know if I’d be in the courtroom that day. So I asked why I didn’t get a subpoena, and of course, he refused to answer me. I also explained that if I came I’d probably need an attorney since Jeff Lowe and the rest of his people would be there.

         I truly don’t believe the jury had all the information they needed that day. They came back from deliberation with a verdict for 19 charges in less than three hours; how on earth could they have discussed the case in such a short time? As for Carol Baskin, she told the jury she’d been in fear for her and her family’s lives for ten years, tears flowing and all. I have an article she wrote saying “Joe is just the dumbest”. To be honest, there are people far more intelligent and wealthier than Joseph trying to make Carol disappear. I don’t think they brought up anything about the fact that Joe was planning on leaving the park. We had been looking at properties to move some of Joseph’s cats and animals for a long time. Joseph actually reached out to Howard Baskin around January of 2018 to make a deal. He wanted to give Carol the park as long as she left him and his sick parents alone. Truly, there was no evidence that Joe wanted to kill Carol at this point, it would have undermined everything he was trying to do. 

         I guess the worst thing about this whole trial was the timing. Joseph had recently lost his husband Travis, whom he adored. After that, he had no will to live or any desire to be at the park at all. The property was ruined by the memories of Travis’ incident. After Joseph met Dillon he said he wasn’t going to make the same mistake he made with Travis. He just wanted to live in the zoo with Dillon and travel. He was going to keep the animals as personal pets instead of running a zoo. Again, this is information that we all knew. That’s me, Brenda, and Amber who Joe took care of for over fourteen years along with her children. She was Joseph’s heart and soul. I’m not sure if they knew about us looking at properties but everyone knew he wasn’t about to make the same mistake again. 

         I’m not exactly writing this in chronological order, mostly just remembering things as I write. Either way, none of these people were ever called to the stand. The day Jeff got back from Vegas in April he realized he couldn’t go back since he was running out of money and likely being watched. So he came to the zoo. According to what I was told he went to every person and told them to make sure they were loyal to him or he’d bury them all. Brenda told me this. Jeff never came near me; I didn’t work there, and he knew I wasn’t afraid. Then he posted some mail of mine from the OKC Tax Commission on Facebook with all kinds of threats. I sent it to Joseph’s attorney to show him how he was getting people to turn on Joe simply because they feared Jeff. They never subpoenaed Joe’s husband Dillon either - not a single question about any of this. The only people who were put on the stand were the people that wanted Joseph to rot in a cell. There were so many other workers at the park his defense should have requested: Jorge, Katrina, Brenda and her son Cody, Jackie, Saff, etc… From what I was told, Saff did 30 days in jail because he refused to help the feds. He told them “If you want to bury him go ahead but I am not throwing dirt on his grave.” Everyone that testified was threatened with cub trafficking since they were the ones driving the cubs, so it was in their best interest to throw Joe under the bus. Speaking of, the five cub trafficking charges from Dr. Green was a mistake, and his secretary made that very clear. I was given this information by John Reinke; he couldn’t believe they charged him with those five cases despite that information.        

Alright, so this is everything I know at the moment. I’m sure there’s more, but I’ll have to think on it. If you have any questions or need clarification, let me know and I’ll do my best to help.  

 
 
The Attorneys
  • Francisco Hernandez
  • Daniel Hernandez
  • Phillip Hall
  • Rocio Martinez