A Riverside County girl often called “the butt woman” has been convicted of homicide after a second consumer — a TV actor residing in Malibu — died from silicone injections she administered, authorities mentioned.
Final yr, Libby Adame was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and practising medication with out a certification for giving 26-year-old Karissa Rajpaul a deadly silicone butt injection in Sherman Oaks in 2019. However the conviction didn’t cease her from persevering with to carry out unauthorized procedures in California, prosecutors mentioned.
On March 24, she gave an injection to “ER” actress Cindyana Santangelo, leading to a deadly embolism.
On Thursday, a Los Angeles jury convicted Adame of second-degree homicide and of practising medication with out a certification, in response to court docket information.
In her closing argument, L.A. County Deputy Dist. Atty. Lee Cernok mentioned Adame had been warned by the choose within the 2024 trial that, as she was conscious of the hazards of her providers, she might be convicted of homicide if one other consumer died, in response to reporting from Metropolis Information Service.
There’s proof to recommend that Adame was conscious of the hazards of silicone butt injections even earlier than Rajpaul and Santangelo died from the process.
Throughout the 2024 trial, prosecutors mentioned there was safety digital camera footage of Adame fleeing a salon in South Gate in 2018 as paramedics rushed within the entrance door to deal with a lady who subsequently died from the injections. No expenses have been filed within the 2018 dying.
Santangelo’s husband, Frank Santangelo, testified at the latest trial and is suing Adame for wrongful dying within the process, which happened at their Malibu dwelling.
He mentioned his spouse was “killed within the prime of her life in her own residence after being unlawfully injected with unsafe and unapproved substances by Libby Adame, an unlicensed particular person falsely holding herself out as certified to carry out beauty procedures,” in response to the civil grievance.
“Tragically, her dying not solely might have, however ought to have been prevented,” he acknowledged within the grievance. Frank Santangelo alleges that Adame fled their dwelling as quickly as she noticed his spouse starting to convulse.
Throughout this week’s trial, Adame’s lawyer, J. Michael Flanagan, denied that Adame carried out the deadly Malibu injection on Cindyana Santangelo, in response to Metropolis Information Service.
He advised jurors that his consumer, often called “the butt woman’’ or “La Tia,’’ was working as a advisor for docs who can legally carry out buttocks injections in Mexico however was not practising in California, in response to Metropolis Information Service. He argued that another person should have carried out the injections earlier than Adame arrived at Santangelo’s home.
The jury was not swayed by this argument.
Adame was beforehand sentenced to 4 years and 4 months in jail for the 2019 dying of Rajpaul. Adame’s daughter, Alicia Galaz, was additionally convicted of involuntary manslaughter for aiding with the 2019 process and sentenced to a few years and eight months in jail.
They each obtained credit score for time already served in custody in addition to time below digital monitoring after their 2021 arrest, which meant that Adame was out of jail and again in enterprise inside a yr of being sentenced.
Adame is about to face a considerably longer sentence within the dying of Santangelo.
In California, second-degree homicide has a compulsory minimal sentence of 15 years, whereas practising medication with out a certification is punishable by as much as three years. Adame was additionally discovered responsible of a particular allegation of inflicting nice bodily hurt, which provides three to 6 years to a sentence.
She is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 5.
Silicone butt injections proceed to develop in recognition within the U.S. even supposing the Meals and Drug Administration warns that injectable silicone for physique contouring shouldn’t be FDA-approved and comes with severe risks. If the silicone migrates past the injection website, it may possibly result in stroke, infections and dying, in response to the FDA.
A Florida girl is awaiting trial in California the place she is accused of delivering deadly butt injections to a Kim Kardashian look-alike.
