Deadly Silicone Butt Injections Brings Maryland Prison Time

GREENBELT, MD — A man originally charged with murder after he reportedly injected a woman’s buttocks with silicone to increase their size – a procedure which a medical examiner says killed her – and pleaded guilty to lesser federal charges, will spend time in prison.

A federal judge sentenced Vinnie Lysander Taylor, 44, of Wilmington, NC, on Friday to 14 years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for receiving and selling industrial grade silicone, but representing to customers that it was medical grade silicone. A client died as a result of receiving such injections.

Taylor was indicted in August 2015 on nine charges tied to the silicone injections. According to his plea agreement, at $500 per treatment, Taylor’s mid-range fee, proceeds from the illegal injections total at least $1,598,000.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says Taylor admitted that from at least 2008 through Dec. 16, 2014, he administered silicone injections into the buttocks of customers who wanted larger or fuller buttocks. Taylor, who was not a licensed medical practitioner, lied to customers and victims to whom he administered liquid silicone injections that the procedure was safe and that he used medical grade silicone, when in fact the silicone was not medical grade silicone.

“Industrial-grade silicone that is injected into individuals’ bodies can cause serious bodily injury or death,” said FDA agent Mark S. McCormack, in a news release.

Taylor administered the injections in hotel rooms in Prince George’s County, as well as in St. Louis, MO, Arlington, VA, and elsewhere. Prince George’s County authorities say Taylor was at a Capitol Heights hotel on March 20, 2014, where he gave a woman silicone injections. She became ill and later died at a local hospital, Patch earlier reported. An autopsy determined that the cause of death was acute and chronic respiratory failure due to a foreign substance causing a blockage in one of the pulmonary arteries to the lungs.

Prince George’s County prosecutors charged Taylor with second-degree murder in the death.

As part of his federal plea deal, Taylor pleaded guilty in Prince George’s County Circuit Court to actions that resulted in the death of the victim in March 2014. In exchange, the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office dismissed first-degree murder charges which were pending against Taylor.

Prosecutors say at least 10 women in Maryland received the unsafe injections.

»PHOTO of suspect Vinnie Taylor, courtesy of the Prince George’s County Sheriff’s Department