A Riverside County woman who was convicted of second-degree murder for injecting silicone oil into a woman's buttocks just over a year after being found guilty of a lesser charge stemming from another woman's death under similar circumstances was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years to life in prison.
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Jurors deliberated just over a day before finding Libby Adame, 55, guilty on Oct. 9 of the murder charge, along with a count of practicing medicine without certification. The charges stemmed from the March 24 death of 59-year-old Cindyana Santangelo of Malibu.
Jurors also found true an allegation that Adame personally inflicted great bodily injury on Santangelo.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta -- who ordered Adame to be held without bail after the jury's verdict -- rejected a defense motion for a new trial before handing down the sentence.
Defense attorney J. Michael Flanagan wrote in his court filing requesting the new trial that it is a "statutory remedy by which the defendant may seek a re-examination" of the case by the judge.
Adame's lawyer also noted that the judge has "the power to modify the verdict rather than grant a motion for a new trial if it believes the defendant to be not guilty of the crime charged, but guilty of a lesser degree of the same crime, or of a lesser included offense."
In her written opposition to the defense's motion, Deputy District Attorney Lee Cernok countered that there was "substantial, credible evidence" that Adame is "solely responsible for (the) second-degree murder of victim Cindyana Santangelo."
The prosecutor noted that during Adame's testimony in her own defense that the defendant "freely admitted that she still does the injections in Mexico despite her 2024 conviction for the involuntary manslaughter of Karissa Rajpaul."
After last month's verdict, Santangelo's husband, Frank, told reporters outside court that his wife "received the justice she deserved."
Meanwhile, the defense attorney maintained after the verdict that his client "wasn't there" when Santangelo received the buttocks injections
"This is a travesty," Adame's attorney said, adding that Adame plans to appeal her conviction.
Adame and her daughter, Alicia Galaz, were found guilty in March 2024 of involuntary manslaughter -- but acquitted of the more serious charge of murder -- stemming from the Oct. 15, 2019, death of 26-year-old Karissa Rajpaul following buttocks injections administered at a Sherman Oaks home.
Adame was also convicted last year of three counts of practicing medicine without a certification, while her daughter was found guilty of two counts of practicing medicine without a certification.
Adame was sentenced in April 2024 to four years and four months in state prison, while her daughter was sentenced to three years and eight months in state prison, with Judge George G. Lomeli subsequently agreeing with an argument by Galaz's attorney that the two were entitled to additional credit for the time they underwent electronic monitoring while out of custody following their August 2021 arrests at the home they shared.
In her closing argument in the latest case, the prosecutor told jurors that the judge in Adame's first trial had warned the defendant in April 2024 that she was "on notice of the dangers that could result" from her actions after her conviction for involuntary manslaughter for Rajpaul's death and that Lomeli had warned her that she could be charged with murder if it occurred again.
"Did she know better?" Cernok asked jurors of Adame, saying the answer was "a resounding yes."
Santangelo died after being rushed from her home to a nearby hospital in Ventura County, with authorities subsequently determining that her cause of death was an embolism caused by a silicone injection, the prosecutor noted.
"There is no reasonable doubt in this case, ladies and gentlemen," the deputy district attorney said.
Adame's attorney countered that "She did not do it," saying there were "no injections this time by her."
Flanagan acknowledged that Adame had performed a "procedure" on Rajpaul in 2019 and that Rajpaul had died as a result of a silicone injection.
Adame's lawyer noted that his client was still on probation at the time of Santangelo's death and that she knew she can't do "butt work" in California, but said the woman known as "the butt lady" or "La Tia" was working as a "consultant" on behalf of doctors who can legally perform buttocks injections in Tijuana, Mexico.
The defense attorney contended that his client wouldn't have had enough time to perform the procedure after arriving at the woman's house, and accused investigators of failing to adequately investigate after deciding that his client was the only suspect in the woman's death.
He said Adame saw that Santangelo already had bandages on her buttocks at the time of the consultation in the "beauty room" of the 59-year-old woman's home, arguing that someone else had performed the procedure earlier that resulted in the woman's death.
In her rebuttal argument, the prosecutor told jurors to hold Adame "responsible" and tell her that "she is not above the law."
Adame testified in her own defense, denying that she was the one who gave Santangelo any injections the day she died.
"Do you know who did?" her attorney asked.
"No," the defendant responded.
Adame -- who told jurors that she had done thousands of the procedures -- said the puncture marks on Santangelo's buttocks were "too high" and that "it's not my work." She testified that the woman told her that she had already gone to a "salon in Malibu."
The defendant said Santangelo kept clearing her throat from the time she arrived at the home and was "already breathing like she needed air." She said that the woman's husband told her to leave after he called 911.
"You just happened to arrive after she got the injections from someone else?" the prosecutor asked Adame during cross-examination.
"Yes," Adame responded.
Frank Santangelo testified that his wife of 24 years appeared to have been breathing normally before meeting with Adame and wanted a "butt enhancement" to correct lumps in her buttocks from hormone treatment, but didn't want to increase the size of her buttocks.
He said his wife -- who had worked as an actress -- subsequently was "struggling to breathe," was squirming on the massage table and "had blood coming from each butt cheek."
The woman's husband testified that Adame told him, "This has never happened to a client of mine before."
He said Adame told him she might have something in her car that could help the woman and packed her bag, telling jurors that Adame never came back into the house again.
The woman's husband said he never saw his wife's phone again, but was eventually able to access her messages with Adame from her iCloud and alerted authorities after he recognized photos that his wife had taken of Adame's buttocks and tattoos in his presence that afternoon.
Adame was arrested May 12 by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department personnel and has remained behind bars since then, jail records show.
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