Butt Injections Killed Their Client, But RivCo Pair Get Reprieve

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — A Riverside mother and daughter who were convicted last month of involuntary manslaughter stemming from the death of a young woman they injected with buttocks-enlarging silicone, were released from custody Thursday just hours after their sentencing hearing.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge George G. Lomeli determined that Libby Adame, 53, and her 26-year-old daughter, Alicia Galaz, had already served their time.

During the hearing, Adame was sentenced to four years and four months in state prison, while Galaz got three years and eight months in connection with 26-year-old Karissa Rajpaul's 2019 death. In addition to the involuntary manslaughter charge, a jury had found Adame guilty of three counts of practicing medicine without a certification, while her daughter was found guilty of two counts of practicing medicine without a certification.

Judge Lomeli ordered the women to be taken into custody over the objection of a defense attorney who argued the duo had already served their time because they had been under electronic monitoring while out of custody following their 2021 arrests. The judge eventually agreed and the defendants were released.

The mother and daughter were facing serious charges. Prosecutors had argued that Adame and Galaz knew the procedure they performed on Rajpaul could cause death because they witnessed it before. The two were allegedly at the scene of a South Gate salon where another woman lost consciousness and died after getting an injection, according to prosecutors.

Defense attorneys called Rajpaul's death a tragic accident.

On Oct. 15, 2019, Rajpaul allegedly had her buttocks injected by the mother and daughter at a home in Sherman Oaks. Rajpaul started to lose consciousness after the procedure, but Adame and Galaz fled the home before first responders arrived, the Los Angeles Police Department reported.

"As a result, the victim died in an emergency room with tending physicians unaware of the silicone injection," police said. The mother-daughter team "performed these inherently unsafe, FDA unapproved, cosmetic buttocks augmentations. Neither are a licensed medical provider in California and their clients were recruited through Instagram."

According to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office, Rajpaul died the same day of the procedure from acute cardiopulmonary dysfunction caused by intramuscular/intravascular silicone injections.

It wasn't the first time Rajpaul allegedly used the services of Adame and Galaz. According to NBC Los Angeles, Rajpaul had undergone three procedures with the pair over several weeks and she posted a video of her buttocks augmentation to her social media account in September 2019. She died a month later.

The two women were arrested on August 5, 2021, in the 5700 block of Baldwin Avenue in Riverside. They were each charged with one count of murder and three counts of practicing medicine without a license. During their trial, jurors acquitted the two on the murder charge.

In a statement read in court Thursday, Rajpaul's mother, Eureka Bobee, wrote, "In that single act, you caused her family and friends an unimaginable loss ... as all of us still grieve so deeply every day, many years later," Fox 11 reported.

Bobee said she did not want her daughter's "life, legacy and death" to be in vain, and pleaded with the two defendants, "Please, please, please do not ever harm another soul for the rest of your days."

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration has issued warnings against silicone buttocks injections.

"Injectable silicone is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for any aesthetic procedure including facial and body contouring or enhancement. Silicone injections can lead to long-term pain, infections, and serious injuries, such as scarring and permanent disfigurement, embolism (blockage of a blood vessel), stroke, and death," according to the agency.

"The FDA cautions you to never get injectable silicone or an injectable filler as a breast filler, buttocks (butt) filler, or filler for spaces between your muscles," the FDA warned.

Read the full FDA statement here.