A Rosedale woman admitted to causing a Maryland woman’s death by performing a botched butt enhancement procedure, prosecutors announced Friday.
Donna Francis, 39, pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide on Oct. 18. Francis will return to court for sentencing on Nov. 14, where she faces up a year in jail, pursuant to the extradition order limiting incarceration to no more than one year.
As part of the terms of the extradition agreement, Francis will be held in Suffolk County and not be incarcerated in Rikers Island.
“In pleading guilty, the defendant has now admitted to causing the death of a young woman who sought a cosmetic procedure at a discount and paid with her life. The defendant set up shop in the basement of a Far Rockaway home using a massage table for an examination table and silicone gel that had been purchased from the website eBay,” said Acting District Attorney John M. Ryan. “The victim in this case traveled from Maryland with her mother and paid $1,600 cash for the injections. Sadly, the treatment killed her. She went into cardiac arrest as the defendant pumped a clear liquid substance into the woman’s backside. The defendant, who fought extradition, will serve time behind bars as a result of her actions.”
According to charges, on May 30, 2015, a 34-year-old woman and her mother traveled from their home in Suitland, Md., to meet Francis for a buttock augmentation procedure, which took place in the basement of a home on Dickens Street in Far Rockaway. Francis — who is not a licensed physician or nurse — injected a clear fluid into the victim’s butt, and when Francis administered the second injection, the victim began to show signs of distress.
The victim’s mother called 911 and at around 6 p.m. that day, emergency responders arrived at the scene and found the victim at the bottom of the stairs lying face up. The victim was transported to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
The medical examiner found that the victim’s death was caused by systemic silicone emboli. When injected into a human body, silicone must be encapsulated to avoid free silicone from entering the bloodstream and causing an embolism.
Shortly after the incident, Francis fled the scene and ultimately fled the country to London, England, the next day. A court-authorized search of another address used by Francis uncovered syringes, a jug filled with a clear liquid consistent with silicone and an invoice with Francis’s name on it for jugs of dimethicone (a silicone-based product) from eBay.
While Francis tried to fight extradition, she was ultimately brought back to Queens to face the charges.
