Jimmy Wayne Hammonds, known as “The Monkey Whisperer,” was sentenced on Feb. 19 to nine months in federal prison and three years of supervised release for conspiring to violate the Lacey Act and Lacey Act trafficking. U.S. District Judge Mary S. Scriven also ordered Hammonds to pay a $60,000 fine and permanently banned him from possessing, breeding, selling, transporting, or exhibiting any wildlife.
Hammonds’s sentencing follows his guilty plea on October 23. The case is significant because Hammonds committed these offenses while already on federal probation for previous violations of the same law.
According to court documents, Hammonds operated a business called “The Monkey Whisperer, LLC,” which sold primates and other exotic animals despite his prior conviction under the Lacey Act. He used social media to connect with an undercover agent posing as a buyer and then switched their conversation to an encrypted texting app at his request. Hammonds agreed to sell two common marmosets for $7,400 and arranged for the transaction in Georgia in an attempt to avoid law enforcement oversight.
As part of this prosecution, Hammonds surrendered ownership of 67 animals including several species of primates as well as muntjac deer, lemurs, kangaroos, wallabies, and otters.
U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announced the sentence and said that a hearing regarding Hammonds’s violation of probation is scheduled for April 2 next year.
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service investigated the case with help from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Assistant United States Attorneys Erin Claire Favorit and Abigail K. King prosecuted.
