A Florida woman who in March admitted her role in the death of a popular Atlanta drag queen is heading to federal prison, officials said Friday.
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Deanna Roberts illegally injected four people with silicone not intended for use on humans and not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.
One of those people, 45-year-old Lateasha Shuntel, whose real name was Lateasha Hall, died at her Doraville home Nov. 18, 2015.
Shuntel was a well-known drag performer whose death shocked the community.
Roberts, 47, received an 11-year and three-month sentence to be served in federal prison.
She injected the silicone she illegally obtained into the hips, buttocks and other body parts of her victims, lying to them that she was using medical-grade materials, United States Attorney John Horn said in a news release. She charged between $300 and $1,000 for each treatment that she administered.
The autopsy said Shuntel’s lungs were heavily congested with silicone and the substance was found in her liver, kidney, heart, brain and spleen, after traveling from her buttocks.
Roberts punctured a blood vessel with one of about 20 silicone injections in Shuntel’s buttocks, federal officials said.
“The defendant was aware that silicone injections she was administering were causing serious harm, even requiring hospitalization, yet she continued to inject paying customers with it knowing the risks that were involved,” Horn said. “Even after Roberts knew that the victim in this case died from the injections she gave her, she did not stop. This case is a shocking reminder that citizens should seek care only from experienced and licensed health care professionals.”
Roberts purchased 178 gallons of liquid silicone from an Arizona-based business between 2004 and 2015, stating in an affidavit that the silicone was not intended to be injected into humans, The AJC previously reported.
The FDA strictly regulates liquid silicone, which is only permitted to treat certain eye conditions and not for bodily injections.
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