New York woman charged in 2022 death of Connecticut woman

Alicia Leslie, 47, of Mount Vernon, New York, has been charged with criminally negligent homicide and unauthorized practice of a profession following the 2022 death of 53-year-old Maxine Messam.

According to investigators, Messam died in February 2022 after receiving illegal silicone injections for a buttock enhancement procedure. Police report that Leslie and another woman allegedly transported Messam to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, where she was found unconscious and without clothing below the waist. The women initially claimed they had discovered Messam in distress near Woodlawn Cemetery, but investigators uncovered text messages suggesting the pair had planned to meet for the unlicensed procedure.

Messam was pronounced dead at the hospital. While Leslie has denied wrongdoing, authorities allege the injections caused the fatal cardiac arrest. Leslie was recently arraigned and granted supervised release.