Tonia Haddix, the former Festus-area chimpanzee caretaker who gained fame from the HBO docuseries “Chimp Crazy,” is asking for her nearly four-year prison sentence to be reduced, according to court documents.
Haddix’s lawyer, Justin Gelfand, filed an appeal on Jan. 13 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Haddix previously requested an appeal on Aug. 20, 2025, nearly two weeks after she was sentenced to 46 months in prison.
She had pleaded guilty in March 2025 to two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. She admitted to lying in court three times about the death of a chimpanzee named Tonka, a chimp best known for his role in the 1997 film “Buddy” with Alan Cumming, after she had been ordered to surrender the chimpanzees following a lengthy court battle with PETA over how the animals were being treated at the former Missouri Primate Foundation south of Festus.
Haddix was the last owner of seven chimps – Tonka, Crystal, Mikayla, Tammy, Connor, Candy and Kerry – who lived at the Festus-area facility formerly known as Chimparty, which provided chimps for parties, television ads and movies. The chimps previously belonged to Connie Casey, who transferred ownership of the animals to Haddix in an attempt to end a lawsuit PETA filed against her in 2016.
Tonka was found alive and living with Haddix in June 2022. The chimp was then transported to the Save the Chimps Sanctuary in Florida.
When Haddix was sentenced in August 2025, Gelfand requested in court papers that his client be sentenced to one year and one day in prison.
U.S. assistant attorney Hal Goldsmith wrote in a sentencing memorandum that Haddix deserved “significant punishment” after federal agents allegedly found she was secretly harboring a female chimp in violation of her bond after pleading guilty to lying in federal court and an agreement in a civil lawsuit with PETA.
Federal prosecutors had initially agreed to recommend a prison sentence of 10 to 16 months in exchange for the guilty plea, court records said.
However, Federal Judge Stephen Clark on Aug. 7, 2025, sentenced Haddix to 46 months in prison.
In the appeal, Gelfand wrote, “the sentence imposed was procedurally unreasonable.” He wrote “based on Haddix’s acceptance of responsibility, her lack of criminal history, her low risk of recidivism and her traumatic personal history – including an unstable and abusive upbringing and multiple abusive adult relationships – the district court should have imposed a more lenient sentence.
Gelfand also wrote in the appeal that the sentence imposed was more consistent with crime involving violence, financial greed or danger to the public. He wrote that his client’s crimes “were not motivated by financial gain, hostility toward the law or an intent to harm any person. Rather, they arose from a misguided and emotionally driven effort to retain possession of a chimpanzee she loved and viewed as family.”
In response, an appellee brief is now due on Feb. 13, according to court documents.
When Clark sentenced Haddix, he said she lied to judges, refused to pay court-imposed penalties and profited from her violations of court orders. After “Chimp Crazy,” was released last year, Haddix cashed in on the notoriety, launching an Etsy shop to sell branded apparel, starting a podcast and delivering personalized video messages through the social media platform Cameo.
Haddix’s legal battle appeared to be over in July 2021, when a federal judge ordered her to give up ownership of seven chimps and allow PETA to transfer them to the Center of Great Apes in Wauchula, Fla. The order came after the judge ruled Haddix had not followed a consent decree she had reached with PETA, which would have allowed her to retain ownership and care for Crystal, Mikayla and Tonka.
Crystal, Mikayla, Tammy, Connor, Candy and Kerry were transferred from the Festus-area facility to the Florida sanctuary on July 28, 2021. Tonka also was supposed to be transferred that day, but Haddix said Tonka died May 24, 2021, after suffering a stroke or heart attack.
Haddix had testified that her sixth and current husband, Jerry Aswegan, cremated Tonka’s body.
However, in June 2022, Tonka was discovered alive and living with Haddix at her home in Sunrise Beach near Lake of the Ozarks.
The discovery of Tonka came about because of Haddix’s role in “Chimp Crazy.” The documentary showed a video hearing in which Haddix appeared from her home and told the court Tonka had died of congestive heart failure.
After that hearing, she told the film crew she had lied. “I opted to go against the court order,” she said in the third episode of the documentary.