A California woman — dubbed “the butt lady” — was found guilty Thursday of murdering “Married … with Children” actress Cindyana Santangelo during a botched silicone injection session.
Libby Adame, 55, was convicted of second-degree murder and practicing medicine without a license in connection with the 59-year-old actress’s March 24 death, the LA Times reported.
Santangelo — a mother of two — died after she was rushed from her Malibu home to a Ventura County hospital, where officials ruled an embolism from a silicone injection caused her death, prosecutors said.
Defense attorney J. Michael Flanagan told jurors that Adame was only at Santangelo’s home as a consultant on behalf of doctors who can legally perform buttocks injections in Tijuana, Mexico.
He argued that his client didn’t have time to perform the procedure on Santangelo and blasted investigators for pinning the woman’s death on her without a full investigation.
At the time of the “ER” actress’s death, Adame was on probation from an involuntary manslaughter case over the fatal 2019 buttocks injections that killed 26-year-old Karissa Rajpaul in Sherman Oaks, according to the LA Times.
She and her daughter and accomplice, Alicia Galaz, were acquitted of the more serious charge of murder. Adame received a four-year, four-month state prison sentence in April 2024, but was released less than a year later due to time served in custody and electronic monitoring.
Flanagan acknowledged that his client — known as “the butt lady” or “La Tia” — performed a procedure on Rajpaul, but was aware she could no longer do “butt work” in California.
Flanagan said they will be filing an appeal on her second-degree murder conviction.
Adame has been in custody since her May 12 arrest by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for Nov. 5.
Under California law, second-degree murder carries a minimum sentence of 15 years, and practicing medicine without a license can result in up to three years in prison.
Adame was also found guilty of a special enhancement for causing great bodily injury, which adds an additional three to six years to her sentence.
The actress’s husband, Frank Santangelo — who is also suing Adame for wrongful death in the procedure — claimed his wife was “killed in the prime of her life in her own home…”
“Tragically, her death not only could have, but should have been prevented,” he wrote in a civil complaint obtained by the LA Times.
Following Thursday’s verdict, her husband told ABC 7 that he feels justice has been served.
The mother of two stepped into the entertainment industry in 1989 after being cast in Young MC’s music video for “Bust a Move.”
She later dabbled in TV work, going on to secure the role of Sierra Madre on “Married…With Children,” before appearing on “CSI: Miami” and “ER.”
Santangelo made her film debut in 1990 when she was cast in “The Adventures of Ford Fairlane,” and worked alongside Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett in the 2003 comedy “Hollywood Homicide.”
Read the full article here
