Women Sentenced to Prison after Fake Botox Leads to Patient’s Death

A woman from Southern Texas was convicted and sentenced for murder after fatally injecting a woman in 2012 with fake Botox.

Elva Mendoza Navarro, from Hidalgo, was sentenced to five years in prison after she pleaded guilty to the murder of Zenyasent Cisneros. Cisenros died as a result of complications from the injections she received in October 2013 at Bella’s Face and Body Spa which was owned by Navarro.

Court documents show that Cisenros had paid for a buttock enhancement procedure using Botox. However, the product used was mislabeled hardware store grade silicone.

Navarro’s attorney, Terry Canales, argued that Nevarro was unware that the Botox was fake when she injected six women with it and claimed that she also used the product on herself. Canales said that there was a possibility that Navarro had “been fooled herself and had no idea the product was not what it was labelled”.

In June 2014 Canales also represented Navarro in a federal case where she pleaded guilty to receiving and importing the liquid silicone she used to inject Cisneros with the intent to “defraud and mislead” her customers. In that instance she was sentenced to three years in prison which will run at the same time as the five years she was sentenced to in the more recent case.

Canales asked that the judge reduce the murder charge to manslaughter and recommended that Navarro be given probation as there was no proof of intent to kill Cisneros. Originally Navarro was facing 99 years in prison but in exchange for her guilty plea prosecutors dropped two counts of practicing medicine without a license and one count of kidnapping from a separate case.

After serving half of her sentence Navarro will be eligible for parole and she has already served about nine months in jail.

The case highlights the need for patients who choose to undergo Botox treatment to be sure that they are being treated by a fully qualified and American Board of Plastic Surgery recognized surgeon.