A Dallas County jury found Denise “Wee Wee” Ross guilty of murder and practicing medicine without a license after a week long trial that revealed she gave women buttocks enhancement injections using toxic, industrial grade silicone, killing one victim.
On Tuesday, the jury rendered their verdict: “We, the jury, unanimously find the defendant Denise Rochelle Ross guilty of murder as charged in the indictment,” read presiding Dallas District Court Judge Tammy Kemp.
Ross ran a butt boosting black market beauty business in the Deep Ellum neighborhood of Dallas with Jimmy “Alicia” Clarke, a transgender woman. Ross, known for the “Wee Wee” booty, illegally dispensed buttocks enlargement shots for more than three years in Dallas, according to police. She told clients the fillers she used were saline or hydrogel, The Dallas Morning News reported.
However, the 45-year-old Ross actually used commercial grade silicone and then sealed any puncture wounds left from syringes with Super Glue and cotton balls. One “patient,” 34-year-old Wykesha Reid, died of a pulmonary embolism as a result of Ross’ beauty treatments on February 19, 2015. Ross and Clarke allegedly injected the fatal dose of silicone into Reid’s backside.
Dr. Stephen Lenfest, the medical examiner who performed Reid’s autopsy, testified during the trial that the commercial sealant traveled through her veins and clogged her lungs, making it difficult for her to breathe.
Industrial strength silicone has many uses, none of which are intended for consumption within the human body. Gutters, doors, and siding often contain the sealant. As caulk, it is used to fill in gaps around sinks, bathtubs, and showers, as well in heating and air conditioning systems, refrigeration, plumbing, and automobile engine gaskets.
Reid received butt “filler” injections at least three times before from Ross and Clarke. Subsequently, she developed cysts related to these procedures, said prosecutors. Lenfest said the silicone, which was thicker than water, remained in a fluid state even after Reid died, the Dallas newspaper noted. The medical examiner added Reid might have survived, had she been taken to the hospital.
Instead, Reid was left on a doctor’s office-like table overnight after she died, with her pants left partially pulled down, WFAA reported. Prosecutors believed Clarke returned the next morning and then called 911 to report finding Reid’s lifeless body.
Officials originally charged Clarke, 34, with murder as well; however, they reduced the sentence to manslaughter after Clarke testified against Ross during the trial. Clarke’s court date is set for June.
During the initial sentencing phase of this trial, a witness testified Ross also performed breast enlargements at a Glenn Heights home, using the lethal industrial grade silicone as far back as 2010. This woman told the jury Ross gave her injections that led to an infection and later developed into thyroid cancer, for which she now receives medical treatment.
On the murder charge, Ross faces five to 99 years or life in prison.
The Ross guilty verdict comes one day after Oneal Ron Morris, the Floridian transgender “toxic tush” doctor infamous for injecting women’s derrieres with a commercial grade silicone cocktail cut with mineral oil, Fix-a-Flat tire sealant, and cement, then closing the wounds with Super Glue, was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Broward County court, the Sun-Sentinel reported. Like Ross in Dallas, Morris was not a licensed doctor or beauty practitioner.
In February, Morris, 36, pleaded no contest to manslaughter and practicing medicine without a license in connection with the death of a 31-year-old Tamarac woman who died from receiving those industrial strength butt booster shots.
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