|
Pump it Up, Baby!
Industrial-grade silicone pumped into party-goers !
I saw these folks on Fox - there wasn't a bright bulb in the box.
............
Silicone defendant guilty of murder
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
May 24, 2003
A South Carolina man was found guilty Friday of third-degree murder and illegally practicing medicine in the death of a Miami woman after a back-alley silicone pumping party in Miramar.
Mark Hawkins, 38, faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced.
His former partner, Donnie Hendrix, 34, was acquitted of the most serious charges against her. She faces up to six years in prison for the lesser charges of culpable negligence and unlicensed practice of medicine.
The two were charged with manslaughter, third-degree murder and the unlicensed practice of medicine causing serious bodily injury for the March 20, 2001, death of Vera Lawrence, 53. Two separate Broward Circuit Court juries heard all of the evidence against them together, but deliberated and reached their verdicts separately.
"The juries had very intelligent verdicts because Hawkins was the only one witnesses saw with his hands on Vera Lawrence but Hendrix was standing by in the bedroom while it was done," said prosecutor Howard Scheinberg.
The case gave South Florida an introduction to a bizarre underworld of people -- both straight and gay -- who undergo invasive cosmetic procedures at the hands of amateurs in hotel rooms and private homes.
A third person, Cory Williams of Miramar, who invited guests to the illegal party in her condo, pleaded guilty to manslaughter earlier in the case and was sentenced to probation in exchange for her testimony against Hawkins and Hendrix.
"The important thing is that these guys are put out of business," Scheinberg said. "That's the true danger to the community. The public and the culture involved in this pumping process needs to wake up -- they are literally at risk with every injection."
Lawrence's daughter, Tangela Sears, let out a muffled "Yes" in the courtroom in Fort Lauderdale when she heard the verdict against Hawkins, then put her head down as tears of relief sprang to her eyes.
She said the trial, which sometimes took on a circus atmosphere because of the flamboyant appearances and testimony of some of the witnesses, allowed her to get some answers as to how and why her mother died. And Sears said she was relieved the jury did not buy the defense theory that her mother just coincidentally died while being injected.
"It was not her time to die. Mark Hawkins killed my mother," Sears said.
Prosecutors said Hawkins and Hendrix operated a traveling, cut-rate business injecting industrial-grade silicone into people who desperately wanted to change their bodies. Some were women who did not like their bodies; others were men who wanted to become women.
The two would drive around the Southern states, injecting transgender people and straight women with the substance. In exchange for having the pumping parties, some customers got credits for their own treatment, providing them with an incentive to recruit other clients.
Hendrix, who was also known as "Viva," previously worked doing makeup and styling for transgender and transvestite people who took part in beauty pageants. At the couple's South Carolina home, detectives found ledgers detailing prices of procedures: $300 for buttocks, $300 for breasts. They also found receipts for the silicone, intended for use as a cleaning product, that Hawkins bought for $8 a gallon.
Lawrence, a grandmother who worked her whole life as a secretary in Miami-Dade County government, met Hawkins and Hendrix through Williams, a family friend. Lawrence had been getting the illegal injections to enlarge her hips and buttocks for months, maybe years, but she kept it a secret from her family.
According to witnesses, Lawrence got dozens of the injections at Williams' condo on the night she died. While she was being injected, she became breathless and was unable to speak.
People who were attending the pumping party called 911 but would not answer paramedics' questions about what might have caused Lawrence to deteriorate so rapidly. She was declared dead shortly after arriving in the emergency room at Memorial West Regional Hospital in Pembroke Pines.
Her daughter, Sears, testified during the trial that she assumed her mother must have died of a heart attack when she learned that Lawrence had suddenly passed away.
But detectives who investigated the case soon found out about the silicone injections and an autopsy revealed that Lawrence died after the substance invaded her lungs.
Defense attorneys Eric Schwartzreich and George Reres argued that Lawrence died by coincidence after being injected and said her death was caused by the cumulative effect of years of injections. A defense medical expert said that Lawrence could have died immediately only if the silicone was injected directly into her veins, which the autopsy showed had not occurred.
But the state's medical expert testified that injecting so much of the substance into a body with sufficient force could cause it to enter the vascular system and cause death.
In closing arguments on Thursday, Scheinberg told the jury that Lawrence bore some responsibility for her own death because she voluntarily took part in the process. But he pointed out that she already paid for her mistake with her life.
......................
I'm not a doctor but I play one at pumping partys!
I don't know about you but there's a limit for me to, um - body mod...
This story should make you feel smart in relation to people who aren't.
What were these people thinking?
__________________
create evolution
|