Unlicensed Bronx practitioner charged with murder in anti-aging NAD injection death

A man accused of administering a fatal anti-aging injection to a woman at a Bronx lifestyle center has been indicted on upgraded charges, including second-degree murder and manslaughter, according to the Bronx district attorney.

Officials said Luis Rojas Cabrera, 55, turned himself in on Tuesday after being indicted by a grand jury on charges including second-degree murder, second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. 

Authorities said Rojas Cabrera, a native of the Dominican Republic, referred to himself as a doctor and operated the Bereshit Lifestyle Center on Riverdale Avenue. Investigators said he was only licensed in the United States as an esthetician.  

The indictment comes months after Elizabeth Baron, 27, visited Rojas Cabrera's Bronx office with her mother for an NAD injection, according to investigators. Baron later died at a hospital.

Last month, the city medical examiner ruled her death a homicide. The medical examiner determined the cause of death was a cardiac air embolism caused by the introduction of air into an intravenous catheter during the procedure, prosecutors said.

Rojas Cabrera's attorney Donald Vogelman said the murder charge is based on "depraved indifference murder."

"What the DA did is outrageous. There is no case ever in New York state under these facts where anyone has been convicted," Vogelman said in a statement to CBS News New York. "The law is clear that the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did not care if the patient lived or died. The fact he called 911 and performed CPR shows that he did care and that it was an unfortunate accident."

A source familiar with the investigation told CBS News New York authorities are aware of two additional people who visited the clinic and later came forward. Neither received the same injection as Baron, and investigators have found no indication they suffered adverse health effects. Rojas Cabrera has not been charged in connection with those individuals.

Rojas Cabrera is being held by the Department of Correction on $2 million cash bail.  

His next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 27.