Mother-daughter duo sentenced in death of woman who underwent illegal butt lift procedure in LA

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A mother-daughter team from Riverside convicted of involuntary manslaughter for illegally administering a silicone injection into a woman's buttocks that led to her death were each sentenced to prison Thursday, but a judge subsequently ordered their release after determining they had already completed their sentences with credit for time they spent under electronic monitoring.

Libby Adame, 53, and her daughter, 25-year-old Alicia Galaz, were found guilty last month of involuntary manslaughter and practicing medicine without a certificate in the death of Karissa Rajpaul.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge George G. Lomeli sentenced Adame to four years and four months in state prison, and Galaz to three years and eight months in state prison and ordered them to be taken into custody over the objection of Galaz's attorney, Nareg Gourjian.

Within hours of the women being handcuffed, the judge said he agreed with the defense attorney's argument 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 Riverside home they shared.

"If you add all this up, it's time served,'' Lomeli told attorneys late Thursday morning. "I'm going to order them released from this facility.''

Adame and Galaz were convicted in March of involuntary manslaughter for Rajpaul's death, with jurors acquitting the two of the more serious charge of murder. Adame was also convicted of three counts of practicing medicine without a certification, while her daughter was found guilty of two counts of practicing medicine without a certification.

What happened to Karissa Rajpaul?

In October 2019, the pair gave Rajpaul an illegal butt lift, injecting her with silicone at a Sherman Oaks home. When the 26-year-old developed an embolism, the mother and daughter fled the scene, leaving before they could even tell paramedics what had been injected into her.

Rajpaul later died at a local hospital.

In sentencing the two women, the judge noted that Rajpaul's death didn't seem to affect their illegal money making scheme, saying that the pair was still doing the illegal procedures after she died.

In a statement read in court on her behalf, the victim'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.''

She wrote that she didn't want her beloved daughter's "life, legacy and death'' to be in vain, and urged the two defendants, "Please, please, please do not ever harm another soul for the rest of your days.''

Silicone injections into buttocks are not FDA approved. The agency actually warns that using injectable silicone for body contouring can lead to serious side effects and maybe even death.

City News Service, Inc. contributed to this report.