Woman faces homicide charge in deadly unlicensed butt lift in 2022, prosecutors say

A Mount Vernon, New York, woman is under arrest, several years after a Bridgeport, Connecticut, woman died during an alleged unlicensed cosmetic procedure on her buttocks. 

Maxine Messam, 53, was dropped off at Jacobi Hospital unconscious, unresponsive and without pants just before 2 a.m. on Feb. 15, 2022, according to police. She had multiple injection marks on her buttocks, police said. 

Messam was taken to the hospital in her own vehicle by two women, according to police. When they arrived, those two women pulled Messam out of her car, loaded her onto a gurney and wheeled her in. They told hospital staff they found Messam outside Woodlawn Cemetery in the same condition. The two women then left the hospital. 

Messam was pronounced dead. 

Now, more than four and a half years later, 47-year-old Alicia Leslie was arrested Saturday. She faces charges of criminally negligent homicide and unauthorized practice of a profession. 

According to the criminal complaint, Leslie, who is also known as Toya, injected Messam with "a silicone substance." 

Leslie is due back in court on Nov. 4.