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Black Madam: I am the Michelangelo of butt injections

She boasted that she was called the "Michelangelo of buttocks injections," had performed hundreds of the cosmetic procedures, and counted many celebrities among her satisfied clients.

Padge Victoria Windslowe, who calls herself "the Black Madam.
Padge Victoria Windslowe, who calls herself "the Black Madam.Read more

She boasted that she was called the "Michelangelo of buttocks injections," had performed hundreds of the cosmetic procedures, and counted many celebrities among her satisfied clients.

But the women who sought out Padge Victoria Windslowe for "buttocks enhancement" were far from starlets. Most were naive 20-somethings in low-paying service-industry jobs with dreams of a more glamorous appearance but not the cash for a plastic surgeon.

They were women like Stephanie Matos, 32, a New York hotel desk clerk who told a Philadelphia jury Thursday that she paid $1,000 to Windslowe in 2008 to inject her buttocks with what turned out to be "industrial-grade silicone."

Matos was the first witness in Windslowe's Common Pleas Court trial for third-degree murder in the 2011 death of a 20-year-old exotic dancer who flew from London to a Philadelphia airport hotel for Windslowe to inject her buttocks with silicone.

In his opening statement to the jury of six women and six men, Assistant District Attorney Carlos Vega said Windslowe had no medical training but told clients she was a "nurse-practitioner" who worked with a cosmetic surgeon and had done hundreds of injections.

"What they didn't know was that this was not medical-grade silicone but silicone for machines, for use on tanks by the military and to lubricate car engines. . . . It was poison," Vega said.

Vega said Windslowe continued doing injections even after the February 2011 death of Claudia Aderotimi, when she knew police were looking for her.

In addition to third-degree murder in Aderotimi's death, Windslowe, 43, is charged with aggravated assault for injections she gave 23-year-old exotic dancer Shurkia King in February 2012 at a "pumping party" in an East Germantown home.

King was hospitalized, vomiting blood and struggling to breathe. Doctors found that the silicone in her buttocks had migrated through her bloodstream to her heart and lungs.

Defense attorney David S. Rudenstein told the jury Windslowe will testify and her testimony will show she believed the procedure was safe and that she had no criminal intent doing the injections.

"She got wonderful results. . . . Do you make a good reputation by having people die on you?" Rudenstein said.

Rudenstein added that Windslowe injected herself with silicone: "Do you think she would have done it to herself if she thought she was killing herself?"

In a late-day surprise, Rudenstein told the judge he wanted the jurors to have a "body view" of Windslowe's unclothed body so they could see the work she did on herself.

Judge Rose Marie DeFino-Nastasi shook her head: "It's late in the day. We'll talk about this tomorrow."

Rudenstein dismissed claims that Windslowe's clients were duped. He noted that they sought her out, paid cash, and knew they "weren't going to a hospital, weren't going to a doctor's office - they were going to a hotel room."

Matos said she found Windslowe through an Internet blog and was joined by her sister, her sister's friend, and another woman for the September 2008 trip to a Philadelphia hotel.

Matos admitted that she now feels "dumb" having undergone the procedure. She said she now gets soreness in her buttocks when she sits too long.

"I didn't know you could die from it," Matos testified. "If I knew that, I never would have done it."

Another witness, Scheffee Wilson, 34, a New York City real estate agent, testified that she got injections by Windslowe in 2008. Within two years, she said she was helping her get new clients for referrals of $250 to $275 a client.

The association ended when she arranged to have Aderotimi and a friend fly back from London for "touch-up" injections in February 2011.

Wilson broke down as she recalled seeing Aderotimi "jolt" as Windslowe administered the seventh of eight shots.

Later, she testified, Aderotimi and her friend came to her hotel room. Aderotimi was clutching her chest and gasping that she could not breathe.

By then, Wilson said, Windslowe had left the hotel. She said she called 911 and learned the next day that Aderotimi had died.

Wilson said she called Windslowe, who asked about Aderotimi.

"I told her she died and she hung up on me," Wilson said.