A Riverside County woman known as the “Butt Lady” has been found guilty of murder after her second client, a TV actor who lived in Malibu, died from a silicone injection, authorities said.
Libby Adame was convicted last year of manslaughter and practicing medicine without a license for giving 26-year-old Karissa Rajpaul a fatal silicone butt injection in 2019 in Sherman Oaks. But prosecutors said the conviction did not stop her from continuing to perform unauthorized surgeries in California.
On March 24, she gave “ER” actress Cindiana Santangelo an injection that caused a fatal embolism.
On Thursday, a Los Angeles jury convicted Adamu of second-degree murder and practicing medicine without certification, according to court records.
In closing arguments, Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Lee Chernock said the judge warned Adame at the 2024 trial that because she was aware of the dangers of her services, she could be found guilty of murder if another client died, City News Service reported.
There is evidence that Adame was aware of the dangers of silicone injections in the buttocks even before Rajpaul and Santangelo died from the surgery.
During the 2024 trial, prosecutors said surveillance video showed Adam fleeing a South Gate salon in 2018 as paramedics rushed through the front door to treat a woman who later died from an injection. No charges have been filed in the 2018 deaths.
Santangelo’s husband, Frank Santangelo, testified at the recent trial and sued Adame for wrongful death during the surgery at their Malibu home.
He said his wife was “murdered in her own home when she was in the prime of her life after being illegally injected with an unsafe and unapproved substance by Libby Adame, an undocumented individual who falsely claimed she was qualified to undergo cosmetic surgery,” according to the civil complaint.
“Sadly, her death not only could but should have been prevented,” he said in the complaint. Frank Santangelo claimed that Adame fled the home as soon as he saw his wife starting to convulse.
During this week’s trial, Adamu’s attorney, J. Michael Flanagan, denied that Adamu administered the fatal Malibu injection to Cindiana Santangelo, CNS reported.
He told jurors that his client, known as the “Butt Lady” or “La Tia,” was working as a consultant for a doctor who could legally give butt injections in Mexico but did not practice in California, CNS reported. He argued that someone else must have administered the injection before Adame arrived at Santangelo’s home.
The jury was not swayed by this argument.
Adame was previously sentenced to four years and four months in prison for the 2019 death of Rajpaul. Adame’s daughter Alicia Galaz was also found guilty of manslaughter for assisting in the 2019 proceedings and was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison.
They were both given points for time already in custody and for time spent on electronic monitoring following their arrest in 2021, meaning Adame was out of jail and back to work within a year of being sentenced.
Adame faces a longer sentence for Santangelo’s death.
In California, the mandatory minimum sentence for second-degree murder is 15 years, while practicing medicine without certification is punishable by up to three years in prison. Adamu was also found guilty on a special charge of causing grievous bodily harm, which would have added a further three to six years to his sentence.
She is scheduled to be sentenced on November 5.
Silicone butt injections are growing in popularity in the United States, despite warnings from the Food and Drug Administration that injectable silicone used for body contouring is not FDA-approved and poses serious dangers. The FDA says if silicone migrates beyond the injection site, it can cause stroke, infection and death.
A Florida woman is currently awaiting trial in California accused of giving a fatal butt injection to a Kim Kardashian lookalike.
