A British woman was sentenced to just a year in prison for performing an illegal butt injection that caused a 34-year-old American woman's death
NBC New York
Donna Francis, 39, was sentenced to one year in jail Thursday for killing 34-year-old Kelly Mayhew in 2015 with a botched butt injection.
The judge, prosecution, and Mayhew's family were upset with the short sentence, which was a term of her extradition from the UK.
Francis had pleaded guilty to the criminally negligent homicide and unauthorized practice of a profession charges.
A 39-year-old British woman was sentenced to a year in jail on Thursday for causing the death of a 34-year-old Maryland woman with a botched butt injection she was not licensed to give.
Kelly Mayhew traveled to New York City in 2015 with her mother, and paid Donna Francis $1,600 to get a silicone injection in the basement of a Queens home that Francis used as her clinic, NBC New York reported.
Francis, who was neither a licensed nurse nor doctor, injected Mayhew with silicone she bought from eBay, and when Mayhew started reacting to the injection, she fled the house without calling 911, prosecutors said. Mayhew died at the house in her mother's arms, after the silicone entered her bloodstream and caused a fatal embolism.
NBC New York
Francis fled to her native UK a day later, and was tracked down by NBC New York reporters in London in 2017.
She spent the next few years fighting extradition to the US to face trial for Mayhew's death, a battle that she lost.
But the British judge who eventually signed off on her extradition in August required that American prosecutors agree to only sentence her to a maximum of one year and that her sentence be served at a county jail instead of a prison.
The judge, prosecution, and Mayhew's family were all noticeably upset with the short sentence in court on Thursday.
Judge Kenneth Holder told Francis that she "got away with murder."
"To say that I'm not happy with this plea and this sentence is an understatement," Holder added.
NBC New York
Assistant District Attorney George DeLuca-Farrugia called Francis a coward nine times during the sentencing hearing, saying it "pains me that we can't give her more than one year."
Francis had pleaded guilty to charges of criminally negligent homicide and unauthorized practice of a profession, the New York Post reported.
While Mayhew's mother wiped away tears, her son Richard Lane read a letter she wrote, detailing how Mayhew's last words were "Mommy, hold my hand."
When it was Francis' turn to talk, she apologized for causing Mayhew's death.
"My sincere apologies, and I'm sorry for all the years this has been going on," Francis said. "I'm just sorry."
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