ST. LOUIS – Nitica Lee pleaded guilty Thursday to involuntary manslaughter. The 49-year-old admitted to traveling from Dallas, Texas to meet women who wanted hip and butt enhancements.
Lee arranged to do the procedures at a hotel near St. Louis-Lambert International Airport. The hotel was not aware of what was going on.
Court documents say it was a secret backroom procedure for women who wanted their bodies to look plumper in certain places and that defendant Lee reportedly, “…caused the death of Daysha Phillips by injecting her buttocks with a silicone substance in July 2015…which caused a silicone pulmonary embolism.”
Phillips had just turned 22.
It’s taken six years to resolve this case and get to Thursday’s guilty plea. The victim’s family said in court today it’s because defendant Lee was on the run for four to five years before she was arrested on the involuntary manslaughter warrant.
Lee pleaded guilty while sitting in front of a camera in jail. Several family members then read impact statements in court.
“You’re not a physician,” the victim’s mother told Lee. “This is not closure. This is no justice. I cry every day. You killed her once, but I die every day. “
The judge sentenced Lee to five years in prison following the guilty plea.
