What to Know
- A fake surgeon was sentenced Thursday in connection to the botched procedure centering around an illegal butt injection that ultimately claimed the life of a 48-year-old woman in 2018.
- Whalesca Castillo was sentenced to four to eight years in prison. Castillo, who has no medical license, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the June 2018 death of Lesbia Ayala. Now, Ayala's family is calling the sentence a miscarriage of justice.
- Seeking to enhance her figure, Ayala turned to Castillo, a fake surgeon, who injected silicone into Ayala’s buttocks and thighs. The procedure turned fatal when Ayala died from an embolism, a direct result of those injections.
A fake surgeon was sentenced Thursday in connection to the botched procedure centering around an illegal butt injection that ultimately claimed the life of a 48-year-old woman in 2018.
Whalesca Castillo was sentenced to four to eight years in prison. Castillo, who has no medical license, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the June 2018 death of Lesbia Ayala, of Philadelphia.
Now, Ayala's family is calling the sentence a miscarriage of justice.
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"Four years is not enough. I think that today was a great injustice to my sister to my family," Vanessa, Ayala's sister, said.
Seeking to enhance her figure, Ayala turned to Castillo, a fake surgeon, who injected silicone into Ayala’s buttocks and thighs. The procedure turned fatal when Ayala died from an embolism, a direct result of those injections.
Castillo's procedures were not done in a state-of-the-art clinic -- not only were they performed in her Bronx home, but this incident wasn't Castillo's first run-in with the law. Back in 2012, Castillo was sentenced to a year in federal prison and fined $100,000 for running an illegal cosmetic clinic.
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The courtroom was heavy with emotion on both sides.
"Ever since this happened, I have been regretting it so much. So ashamed for myself and for my family because that was not the way they raised me," Castillo said in court.
The judge considered various factors in determining the sentence, ultimately imposing a prison sentence with post-release supervision and emphasizing the need for Castillo to reflect on her actions and their impact.
