ST. LOUIS – From her two years in the US Navy Reserve to her passion to entertain, Daysha Phillips wanted to make a difference. Two of her sisters talked from Indiana and St. Louis.
“No one had a bad thing to say about her,” Kimberly Sanders, Daysha’s sister, said.
Tereesha Patterson said Daysha, who had just turned 22, was trying to attain the type of body people idolize on TV.
“I think you need to be very careful – women, who they hang around with, and who influences them,” Patterson said. “We have a lot of stars and actresses and actors, I don’t want to say any names because it’s not fair to them, but they’re out there, in the music industry. It’s glamorized.”
In the summer of 2015, Phillips went to a hotel near St. Louis-Lambert Airport with several other women to get silicone injections into their buttocks.
“She was basically dying a slow death when she left there,” Sanders said.
Nitica Lee, now convicted of giving that deadly injection, evaded authorities for five years before she was caught in her home state Texas. On Thursday, a judge sentenced her to five years in prison.
Patterson had a message for Lee: “You actually were a participant in a person losing their life and you get five years and you probably won’t even serve all those five years and you got a gift and I really do hope you do something with the rest of your life.”
Phillips family attended Thursday’s sentencing.
“You got to do what you wanted for an additional five years before you were caught,” Sanders said.
St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell said a family’s desire for justice doesn’t diminish over time.
“Those family members are invested in their loved ones and they want justice, whether it’s a day later or 20 years later,” he said.
Bell credits not only Daysha Phillips’ family for their patience but also assistance from other authorities.
“This was a collaborative effort not only with Dallas PD and our office but, for the first time that I am aware of, the FDA because of the silicone shots in this case,” he said.
Bell added that the US Marshal’s Service played a critical role between both jurisdictions.
Nitica Lee turned down an interview but told FOX 2 she wanted to say something to the family. We received a letter from her saying, in part: “I’m writing to you today to attempt to convey my deepest regret and sympathy over the death of Daysha. I had a brief opportunity of meeting Daysha and I can truly appreciate why she was beloved by her family and friends.
“I had no intentions on bringing harm to Daysha’s life… There is nothing I can do or say to undo this tragedy.”
You can read Nitica Lee’s letter below in its entirety:
Letter from Nitica Lee by KevinSeanHeld on Scribd
