Who Has Tia Maria Torres Been Married To?
Tia Maria Torres of Animal Planet’s reality show, “Pit Bulls and Parolees,” is married to Aren Marcus Jackson, her prison pen pal. Jackson was on parole when they married on Halloween of 2006. He returned to prison in 2010 to serve a 15 year sentence for parole violations.
Upon Jackson’s suggestion, Torres hired parolees to help run the Villalobos Rescue Center, the largest pit bull shelter in the United States that Torres founded in Agua Dulce, California. The center moved to New Orleans, Louisiana in 2012.
Jackson was first incarcerated for shooting at police and trying to escape in a police car during a botched car theft in 1993, for which he was sentenced to 14 years. A police raid on the center in 2007 yielded a stolen motorcycle that Jackson claims belonged to another parolee. Jackson accepted a plea deal to serve 15 years to avoid a trial and the possibility of serving a life sentence.