A woman who fled from New York to London rather than face charges in a botched silicone injection that killed a Maryland woman pleaded guilty Friday to criminally negligent homicide, prosecutors said.
Donna Francis, 39, pleaded guilty to administering the buttocks injections that killed 34-year-old Kelly Mayhew on May 30, 2015, in a basement in Queens.
“In pleading guilty, the defendant has now admitted to causing the death of a young woman who sought a cosmetic procedure at a discount and paid with her life,” acting District Attorney John Ryan said.
Mayhew traveled with her mother from Suitland, Maryland, and paid Francis $1,600 for a buttocks augmentation procedure, prosecutors said.
Francis, who had no medical license, injected Mayhew with silicone gel bought from eBay in the basement in the Far Rockaway neighborhood that served as an illegal plastic surgery clinic, the district attorney said.
Authorities said the silicone entered Mayhew’s bloodstream and killed her.
Francis fled to London and was extradited in August.
Her attorney, Kevin O’Donnell, said his client is “incredibly remorseful” for Mayhew’s death and will address the victim’s family at her sentencing Nov. 14.
Under the terms of the extradition agreement, Francis will face no more than a year behind bars.
In another unusual condition of her extradition, Francis will not serve any time at Rikers Island, the notorious jail complex that New York’s City Council voted Thursday to close by 2026. Instead, Francis will be jailed in suburban Suffolk County.