‘Monkey Whisperer’ gets 8 months’ home confinement for selling capuchin to Chris Brown

He can “Kiss Kiss” his freedom goodbye.

A Florida man known as the “Monkey Whisperer” was sentenced Wednesday to eight months of home confinement for selling a monkey to Chris Brown for $12,650 in 2017.

Chris Brown paid more than 12 grand for the monkey. (Amy Sussman/)

Jimmy Hammonds, 58, also got five years of probation in the case that also involved illegal sales of endangered cotton-top tamarins to buyers in Alabama, South Carolina, and Wisconsin, the Justice Department said in a press release.

The feds began investigating Hammonds after Brown shared an Instagram post of his daughter and the capuchin monkey in 2018. Owning capuchins is illegal in California, and Brown was charged with two misdemeanors. He cut a deal to give up the monkey and pay $35,000 for its future care.

But the feds continued looking into Hammonds and his animal selling business, The Monkey Whisperer, based in Parrish, about 25 miles south of Tampa.

It is illegal in both Florida and California to transport a capuchin monkey without a permit. The feds said that Hammonds was well aware of laws around monkey businesses because he tried to conceal the sales of the cotton-top tamarins.

Hammonds pleaded guilty in March to one count of conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and three counts of violating the Endangered Species Act. In addition to the probation and home confinement, he was fined $90,000.