A woman has been arrested and charged with criminally negligent homicide after allegedly carrying out a botched butt lift that killed a patient and then dumping the body at a hospital.
Alicia Leslie, 47, is accused of causing the death of Maxine Messam, 53, through illicit silicone injections, and then leaving her unconscious and naked from the waist down at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.
Procedure went wrong in February 2022
The incident took place in February 2022, but investigations took time and prosecutors charged Leslie at the end of last week. Investigators allege they found a text message exchange between Leslie and Messam planning to meet up for the bootleg beauty procedure on February 15, 2022.
When the procedure went wrong, police believe Leslie dropped Messam off at Jacobi Medical Center with multiple injection marks on her buttocks and then left in a van. The fatal cardiac arrest is said to have been caused by the back-alley silicone injections.
Claims of finding victim in distress
Leslie and another woman, who has not been charged, allegedly claimed they found Messam in Woodlawn Cemetery in distress and did not say they had carried out the procedure. Leslie is due to stand trial on November 4.
Police in America say they have seen a rise in people dying from illicit silicone injections, many of them butt injections, with federal agencies reporting a rise in fake practitioners in New York, Florida, and Texas California.
Previous cases of illegal injections
In 2017, an unlicensed cosmetologist took a plea deal for killing a Queens mom with an illegal butt-enhancement injection. Tamira Mobley, 32, pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter, second-degree assault and the unauthorised practice of a profession in exchange for a maximum four-year sentence, with early release possible after 18 months.
Last year, a California woman dubbed "the butt lady" was found guilty of murdering "Married … with Children" actress Cindyana Santangelo during a botched injection session.
