Anger after Bronx woman is sentenced over fatal botched surgery: ‘Four years is not enough’

A Bronx woman, who performed a botched and unlicensed cosmetic surgery that resulted in a client’s death, was on Thursday sentenced to four to eight years in prison after she pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter.

The convicted woman, identified as Whalesca Castillo, is said to have injected Lesbia Ayala’s buttocks and thighs with silicone before she later died, CBS News reported. “I have been regretting this so much. I am so ashamed,” Ayala told the court before her conviction.

However, the deceased victim’s sister, Vanessa Ayala, stated that she did not believe the fake surgeon was remorseful. “I don’t believe for a minute that she is remorseful about what happened,” Vanessa Ayala said outside the court.

Castillo’s lawyer, Alexi Schacht, said the convicted woman did not “intend to harm anyone.” “She’s only saying it because she feels it, I believe,” Schacht claimed.

Vanessa Ayala said her sister’s decision to undergo the cosmetic procedure stemmed from societal expectations of people’s appearances. She also said the sentence handed out to Castillo wasn’t enough.

“Four years is not enough. I think that today was a great injustice to my family, to my sister,” Vanessa Ayala said.

Castillo’s conviction isn’t the first time she has been punished for committing an offence of such nature as she was locked up for less than a year after she was implicated in 2012.