Woman admits killing performer with illegal silicone injection

A woman who pretended she was a medical professional admitted she caused the death of a popular Atlanta-area drag performer, officials said Monday.

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Deanna Roberts, 47, pleaded guilty to injecting four people with silicone that she purchased illegally and used improperly, U.S Attorney's Office spokesman Bob Page said in a news release.

One of those four people, 45-year-old Lateasha Shuntel, whose real name was Lateasha Hall, died at her Doraville home Nov. 18, 2015.

Her lungs were heavily congested with silicone, according to the autopsy.

Silicone was found in Hall’s liver, kidney, heart, brain and spleen, DeKalb County Associate Medical Examiner Dr. Geoffrey Smith wrote in the autopsy.

Each of her buttocks had 10 injection sites, Smith said.

Roberts punctured a blood vessel on Hall with one of the silicone injections and silicone was carried by the blood stream to the lungs and other organs, causing Hall’s death, Smith said.

Three other customers of Roberts did not die after receiving silicone injections, Page said.

Roberts purchased 178 gallons of liquid silicone from an Arizona-based business between 2004 and 2015, stating in an affidavit that the silicone was not intended to be injected into humans, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.

The Food and Drug Administration strictly regulates liquid silicone, which is only permitted to treat certain eye conditions and not for bodily injections.

Roberts is scheduled to be sentenced May 24 on eight felonies related to Hall’s death.

Cox Media Group