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ST. LOUIS — The way federal Judge Stephen Clark saw it, Tonia Haddix had been living in an alternate reality.

For the past several years, the 56-year-old former caretaker of a movie star chimpanzee largely did whatever she pleased, Clark said: She lied to judges. She refused to pay fines. She starred in an HBO documentary series called “Chimp Crazy.� And she kept owning chimps when she was not supposed to.

On Thursday in a federal courtroom in downtown St. Louis, Clark said he hoped Haddix would shed the proverbial virtual reality goggles she had been wearing.

“It is not OK to defy a court’s order,� the judge told her. “It is not OK to commit perjury and lie under oath.�

Haddix, 56, sat silently at a courtroom table, wearing bright pink lipstick and thick mascara, her signature blonde wig and vibrant pink outfit replaced with stringy, gray-brown curls and prison stripes.

The prosecutor, Hal Goldsmith, who has sent county executives, city aldermen and state representatives to prison for public corruption, told the judge Haddix deserved a stiff sentence for years of misdeeds.

“She has shown no remorse,� Goldsmith said.

When it was his turn, Haddix lawyer Justin Gelfand said it was important not to focus too much on his client’s public face. Instead, he urged the judge to look at her reality.

According to her legal team, Haddix was raised by her mother, who suffered from undiagnosed bipolar disorder and emotionally and physically abused her. They had little money and struggled to get by.

At 19, her lawyers said, Haddix married a 42-year-old man in an attempt to create a stable home life. She had a son and fostered an adopted daughter. She got a job as a nurse.

The marriage didn’t last, and the pair divorced six years later.

Over the next decade, Haddix was married four times to three different men, all roughly 20 years her senior. One marriage ended when her husband died of cancer. The others ended in divorce.

In 2009, Haddix married a man named Gary Haddix. He was a drug addict, her lawyers wrote in court filings, and was physically abusive. She sought orders of protection, and they divorced in 2016.

“This life taught her a clear lesson,� her lawyers wrote. “Humans are unpredictable and are frequently not safe or trustworthy.�

To cope, they wrote, she directed her love toward animals, particularly chimps, many of which were elderly, disabled or discarded by others.

“Her love for animals isn’t casual, it’s her life,� a friend, Penny Healzer, wrote in a letter of support to the judge. “She has helped others who couldn’t afford medical care for their monkeys, never asking for anything in return.�

Haddix had little interaction with the legal system until 2017, when animal welfare advocates with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sued her, claiming she kept several chimpanzees — including Tonka, who appeared in the 1997 movies “Buddy� and “George of the Jungle� — in inadequate conditions.

She eventually agreed to send four chimps to a sanctuary in Florida. As part of that agreement, she was allowed to keep three others, including Tonka.

In 2021, Haddix married her current husband, Jerry Aswegan.

That same year, a judge ruled Haddix had not kept up with the terms of her agreement with PETA. Sheriff’s deputies and marshals arrived at the home in July 2021 to retrieve the rest of the apes.

Tonka wasn’t there.

PETA suspected something was amiss and called a hearing to force Haddix to explain, under oath, what happened to the ape. In a video hearing in which Haddix appeared from her home, she told the court Tonka had died of congestive heart failure.

She wept and described poking his dead body with a piece of PVC pipe. Aswegan signed an affidavit saying he had cremated the body.

In the background, however, a film crew with HBO was rolling. Haddix later told them in an interview that she had lied to the court.

“I opted to go against the court order,� she said in the third episode of the documentary.

Tonka was in an enclosure in her basement in Sunrise Beach, Missouri, near Lake of the Ozarks, she said.

Animal welfare authorities arrived in June 2022 to retrieve Tonka and take him to a Florida primate sanctuary.

The HBO documentary series, “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.

The revelations of Haddix’s deception triggered an investigation into her perjury.

In March, Haddix pleaded guilty to three felony charges, including lying to a court and obstruction of justice. Judge Clark allowed her to remain free while she awaited sentencing. She was ordered not to have any more exotic animals in her possession.

Then last month, investigators again descended on her Sunrise Beach property. There, they found another chimp — a mature female — locked up in the same basement cage that once held Tonka.

Haddix was taken to jail. She has been there ever since.

On Thursday, her lawyer, Gelfand, asked for mercy.

Despite her age and difficult upbringing, the attorney noted that Haddix had no criminal history. She would be spending time locked up for the first time in her life.

Gelfand said he initially planned to ask the court for probation, but given that she had violated her bail conditions by housing another chimp, he was asking for a prison sentence of a year and a day.

Prosecutors, however, asked for a stiff sentence above the 24 to 30 months recommended by federal sentencing guidelines.

Haddix had lied to the court for years without remorse, Goldsmith said. She violated her bond conditions, she made threats to PETA lawyers and judicial officials, and she refused to stop keeping chimpanzees.

“She will not stop until serious consequences are imposed,� Goldsmith said.

Clark said he was inclined to agree. He then imposed a prison sentence of 46 months, followed by three years of supervised release.

“I hope this is truly a wake-up call for you,� he said to Haddix. “It is time to take the goggles off.�

Outside the courthouse after the hearing, PETA’s general counsel, Brittany Peet, said she was grateful for the judge’s decision. In addition to the prison time, he had ordered Haddix to pay $224,400 in attorney’s fees another judge had awarded for the lawsuit.

While Haddix was going to prison, she said, Tonka was thriving.

“She had a choice of whether she was locked behind bars,� Peet said, “a choice she denied those chimpanzees.�