Tonia Haddix, the Missouri woman made infamous by HBO's Chimp Crazy docuseries, is asking a federal appeals court to cut short the prison sentence she received for lying under oath about the fate of a Hollywood chimpanzee named Tonka. Her attorney argues the 46-month term handed down by a federal judge runs more than a year longer than what sentencing guidelines called for, and the case now sits before an appeals court.
U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark sentenced Haddix in August 2025 to 46 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release, a penalty well above the one year and one day her defense team had requested and above advisory federal sentencing guidelines, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Haddix had pleaded guilty in March 2025 to two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice after falsely swearing that Tonka, a chimp connected to the entertainment industry who appeared in Buddy, had died. Her lawyer has argued in the appeal that the sentence is more than a year longer than what the guidelines prescribed, as reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
A Second Chimp Found Hidden in the Same Basement Cage
Haddix's legal troubles multiplied while she was still awaiting sentencing. Federal law enforcement officers executing a search warrant on her Camden County property in July 2025 discovered a mature female chimpanzee concealed in a basement cage, per KCUR. That discovery led to her arrest on July 19, 2025, for violating the bond conditions of her release, which had prohibited her from owning or harboring any primates.
Tonka himself was rescued by U.S. Marshals from Haddix's basement back on June 8, 2022, and relocated to the Save the Chimps sanctuary in Fort Pierce, Florida, where he now lives. While Haddix hid him in a basement cage, she falsely declared him dead, according to PETA. PETA has said Haddix planned to euthanize Tonka after claiming he had congestive heart failure — a diagnosis contradicted by veterinary examinations — and that she had spent nearly $500,000 in legal expenses fighting the case.
A Contempt Hearing in Prison Uniform
The criminal case runs alongside a separate, years-long civil fight in St. Louis County, where PETA has been seeking about $225,000 in legal fees from Haddix. A judge held Haddix and her husband in contempt after she failed to respond to PETA's collection efforts, and at an August 26, 2025, contempt hearing, she testified under oath that she lacked the money or liquid assets to pay nearly $225,000 in attorney's fees owed to the organization, per the Post-Dispatch. She appeared at that hearing wearing a prison uniform, having already been sentenced to federal prison in the separate criminal case.
That state court drama had been building for months. U.S. Marshals detained Haddix in July 2025 after a St. Louis County judge issued bench warrants against her and her husband, Jerry Aswegan, for evading court orders and missing scheduled court dates tied to unpaid civil judgments, as Hoodline previously reported. Aswegan was expected to be detained soon afterward. The couple had repeatedly failed to comply with orders to disclose their financial records.
The Case Traces Back to a 2016 Lawsuit Over Cramped Cages
The decade-long legal saga began in 2016, when PETA filed a lawsuit under the federal Endangered Species Act against the Missouri Primate Foundation, alleging that seven chimpanzees were being kept in cramped, unsanitary, and virtually barren enclosures near Festus, Missouri, according to the Associated Press. Haddix was running the facility in Festus when the chimpanzees were to be transferred. On July 28, 2021, Deputy U.S. Marshals assisted in seizing six chimpanzees from the Festus-area property and transporting them to the Center for Great Apes sanctuary in Wauchula, Florida, after a federal court found Haddix had violated care orders — but she covertly withheld Tonka rather than surrender all seven animals as ordered.
Actor Alan Cumming, who co-starred with Tonka in the 1997 film Buddy, offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the primate's recovery after Haddix claimed Tonka had died of a stroke and been burned in a fire pit, according to Complex. Cumming also wrote to officials through PETA. The saga later became the subject of the HBO docuseries Chimp Crazy, which featured recorded interviews and undercover footage documenting how Haddix hid Tonka in her basement while submitting false affidavits to federal court, per Species Unite.
What the Appeals Court Must Decide
The appeal now before the appeals court centers on whether the 46-month sentence should be reduced because it exceeded the sentencing-guidelines range. Haddix's attorney contends the sentence is excessive, while PETA has said it was pleased with the sentence. It remains up to the appeals court to decide whether that 46-month sentence stands.
