Rosedale woman indicted for homicide over deadly butt injections

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By Jonathan Sperling

A Queens grand jury has indicted a Rosedale woman who allegedly provided a toxic butt injection procedure that left a Maryland woman dead.

Donna Francis, 38, lacks a nurse or physician license, but that didn’t stop her from performing a silicone butt injection procedure in May 2015 that left Kelly Mayhew dead in the basement of a home in Far Rockaway, prosecutors said. 

Justice John Zoll presided over the arraignment, which charges Francis with criminally negligent homicide and unauthorized practice of a profession.

“The defendant is alleged to have set up a temporary medical practice in the basement of a Far Rockaway home with a massage table and silicone gel purchased from Ebay,” Acting Queens District Attorney John Ryan said in a statement.

 “The victim in this case traveled from Maryland with her mother and $1,600 cash and the hope of returning home with the perfect figure. Sadly, she never returned home,” Ryan added.

During the procedure, Mayhew, a producer for BET, began experiencing discomfort, leading Francis to flee the home. Around 6 p.m. the same evening, EMS arrived at the scene after the victim’s mother called 911 and found Mayhews lying face up at the bottom of the stairs. Mayhews was rushed to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Francis allegedly fled the country to London, England the next day, sparking a lengthy extradition battle that ended with a deal between prosecutors and a London judge: Francis was finally extradited last week, but, if convicted, cannot be sentenced to more than one year in jail.

Investigators searched a second house used by Francis, where police allegedly recovered syringes, a jug filled with a clear liquid consistent with silicone and an invoice with the defendant’s name on it from Ebay for jugs of dimethicone, a silicone-based product.

The medical examiner later determined the victim’s cause of death was systemic silicone emboli, which occurs when silicon is not encapsulated and enters the bloodstream, causing an embolism.

Francis’ next court date is on Sept. 27.