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Fatal buttocks injection lands fugitive 5 years in prison

Nitica Deonte Lee pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. She injected a 22-year-old in the buttocks with silicone in July 2015. The victim died four days later
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ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — The woman who injected a fatal dose of silicone into a victim’s buttocks will spend time in prison almost six years after the incident happened.

Nitica Deonte Lee was sentenced Thursday to five years in the Missouri Department of Corrections after previously pleading guilty to first-degree involuntary manslaughter. The maximum sentence was seven years. The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office negotiated a plea deal in the case.

Prosecutors argued Lee injected a 22-year-old victim in the buttocks with silicone on July 26, 2015, causing her to die of a silicon pulmonary embolism four days later.

Lee isn’t a medical professional.

“Liquid silicone injected into individuals’ bodies can cause serious harm and even death, as this tragic case shows,” said Special Agent in Charge Charles L. Grinstead, who works at the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations Kansas City Field Office. “The FDA has not approved any liquid silicone product for body enhancements.”

Lee was a fugitive for five years before being arrested in Texas. Originally, she traveled from Dallas to inject the patient at a hotel near St. Louis Lambert International Airport in 2015. She remained a fugitive for years, including spending some time in Mexico while she was wanted by investigators.

She was arrested by officers with the Dallas Police Department on July 23, 2020, nearly five years to the date of the victim’s death.

“We commend the victim’s family for their superhuman patience, fueled by love, that kept them focused on justice in the many years that this reckless individual willfully evaded our law enforcement partners,” said St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell. “We also want people who endanger and destroy the lives of others to know that we will eventually find you and bring you to justice.”

The Edmundson Police Department in north St. Louis County investigated the incident.

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