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2 get prison time in Vegas cosmetic surgery death

A Colombian couple has been sentenced to prison in the backroom surgery death of a Las Vegas woman who went to them for a buttocks enhancement procedure.
/ Source: The Associated Press

A Colombian couple has been sentenced to prison in the backroom surgery death of a Las Vegas woman who went to them for a buttocks enhancement procedure.

Ruben Matallana-Galvas and Carmen Torres-Sanchez apologized to the dead woman's family Thursday and asked for leniency before each was sentenced to three years and two months to eight years in state prison. Each also was fined $12,000.

Matallana-Galvas and Torres-Sanchez pleaded guilty in August to involuntary manslaughter, conspiracy and practicing medicine without a license.

The judge said the maximum sentence was appropriate for what she called a "senseless loss of life."

An autopsy showed 42-year-old Elena Caro died April 9 from an allergic reaction to anesthesia.

Police arrested the 56-year-old Matallana-Galvas and 47-year-old Torres-Sanchez hours later at McCarran International Airport as they prepared to board a flight for Colombia.