A Los Angeles jury will soon decide whether a Riverside mother-daughter duo whose botched buttock lift in October 2019 led to the death of the Reseda woman, who was determined to improve her appearance, was so negligent when injected their client with liquid silicone whose actions were equivalent. in the murder, or whether her death was simply the result of a mistake.
According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney, Libby Adame, 56, and her daughter Alicia Galaz, 26, should have known the danger when they stuck two syringes into each of the cheeks of 26-year-old Karissa Rajpaul’s leg and pressed the pistons, injecting the chemical normally used to prevent metal from rusting in an attempt to promote the growth of fat cells, but instead he pulled a vein and sent the silicone into her bloodstream, eventually clogging her lungs and her brain, causing an embolism that quickly killed her.
The couple knew this act carried an extreme risk, said Deputy District Attorney Lee Cernok, because they were both aware of the death of a South Gate woman the previous year from the exact same procedure carried out by two other women they worked with — the Galaz was on the scene when paramedics arrived to rush Kenia Arias to a hospital after she received a silicon injection at a salon on Paramount Avenue in August 2018.
Like a game of Russian roulette, Cernok said, injecting liquid silicone into people carries the possibility of death each time the largely underground procedure is performed.
“These ladies were kicking that barrel every time they showed up with this toxic silicone,” Shernock said.
According to both their attorneys, however, Adame and Galaz provided a sought-after cure for women throughout Southern California and were themselves victims of overzealous police and prosecutors trying to make an example of them for what amounted to a tragic accident.
“Do you think killing people is a way to build a successful business?” said Nareg Gourjian, Galaz’s lawyer. “They wanted to do a good job.”
Adame, also known as “La Tia” on social media, and Galaz are both charged with second-degree murder in Rajpaul’s murder.
Both are charged with manslaughter – prosecutors claim the women knew their actions were dangerous and did the procedure anyway out of their desire for money, and in doing so showed malice towards Rajpaul.
Adame also faces three counts of performing a medical procedure without a license, one for each time she treated Rajpaul with silicone injections. Galaz faces two such charges.
Both sides rested their cases Thursday after about a week of testimony.
The jury of 10 men and six women was ordered to begin deliberations, but adjourned in the afternoon without reaching a verdict. They are expected back at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on Friday, March 1.
Witnesses who appeared during the trial included two LAPD detectives who investigated Rajpaul’s death and later revealed Arias’ death at the South Gate salon.
Also testifying was Rajpaul’s husband, Marco Gianuzzi, who witnessed two of Adame’s previous butt lift procedures. Another man, Emil Cohen, at whose Sherman Oaks home Rajpaul performed the third procedure that later killed her. and a researcher at the US Food and Drug Administration who spoke about the dangers of injectable silicone.
Central to the case is what Adame and Galaz really knew about Arias’ death at the South Gate.
Arias was in the salon looking for a second silicone injection, having discussed the appointment in text messages with Adame, Cernok said. Arias got there around 6 p.m., where she received the injection from two women who Cernok said were part of Adame’s “crew” of butt lifters.
Galaz, according to security camera footage, also arrived at the salon, but much later, around 9 p.m. Paramedics were then called and responded to a report of an unconscious woman, Arias, who was transported to a nearby hospital. He died that day of an embolism, lawyers said.
Police obtained cell phone data showing that Adame was around the entire time Arias was at the salon and that she circled the area several times that afternoon.
No one has been charged in Arias’ death. Cernok said Thursday that’s because police don’t yet know who performed the butt lift on her in the living room.
Michael Flanagan, who represented Adam, said his client was not involved in the lifting of Arias’ buttocks and did not know how it was done, including whether mistakes were made that day.
“Does (Adam) know what the problem was? Does she know how much silicone was injected?’ Flanagan said. “He never heard that silicone was deadly.”
Arias’ cellphone went missing on the day of her death, eventually ending up at Adame and Galaz’s Riverside home. But Gourjian noted that the cellphone was delivered the next day to Arias’ family.
But police didn’t get hold of that phone, which held photos of Arias’ butt lift that day that depicted the same bottles of injectable silicone used by Adame and Galaz during Rajpaul’s procedure, until months after her death.
Cernok said Adame and Galaz covered the silicone in massage oil to avoid scrutiny when they took the chemical from Colombia and transported it through Mexico to the US.
He said Adame particularly advertised her services in a way that was intended to convince her clients that she was a professional, when in fact she was practicing a pseudo-medical practice that nevertheless performed complex procedures that involved sticking syringes into women deep enough to penetrate the muscles.
It was also disputed whether or not Adame and Galaz left Cohen’s house after Rajpaul began to lose consciousness.
In 2021, police interviewed Galaz, who told them she panicked when Rajpaul started spiraling after her third injection. Galaz opened a gate that day to allow paramedics into the property, but both Galaz and Adam left soon after they arrived.
