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0Defendant In Silicone Death Offers LeadIn Murder CaseTapeshyrecorded Statement Offers Details On Fatal WarehouseBeating

July 31 2003 | By Ann W ONeill Staff Writer

In a few days Donnie Hendrix begins serving a fiveshyyear sentence for her role in an undergroundsilicone pumping party that killed a Miami woman Hendrix will enter the state prison system notonly as a transgender inmate but also as a snitch

She is now a target on every front said defense attorney George E Reres

The prosecutor Howard Scheinberg said its not the defendant who needs protection Its only fiveyears that we can protect the public from Mr Hendrix

At a sentencing hearing Wednesday Reres subpoenaed Fort Lauderdale homicide Detective JohnCurcio who told Broward Circuit Judge Peter Weinstein that Hendrix recently gave investigators a tapeshyrecorded jailhouse statement in a murder case

Curcio testified that Hendrix provided accurate details that had never been publicized

Neither Curcio nor Scheinberg would discuss details but outside the courtroom Reres said the murdercase involves his clients former cellmate Kevin Christopher Hoffman

Hoffman was arrested Tuesday and charged with firstshydegree murder for the March 2001 beating deathof warehouse manager Michael Sortal It was Hoffmans second arrest in the case Prosecutorsdropped charges last month after learning DNA samples from the murder scene had beencontaminated

But police developed new evidence convincing Hoffmans codefendant Geoffrey Sean Kennedy totestify And they corroborated Kennedys story after six witnesses some of them inmates cameforward and said theyd heard Hoffman make incriminating statements about Sortals murder

Kennedy initially confessed to the murder saying Hoffman was an equal partner He changed his storyearlier this year saying he acted alone Now he has reverted to his original story

South Florida SunshySentinel reporter Nick Sortal the murder victims brother said investigators have toldthe family Hendrix is one of several [witnesses] who are of value because she backs up Kennedysstory Hendrix who claims to have heard Hoffman talking about the murder repeated details that onlysomeone who was present would know he added

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I respect everybody who came forward Sortal said I really believe they want to do the right thingPeople arent 100 percent bad

Reres said outside court that although he wasnt happy with the sentence he thinks his client willcontinue to cooperate He said Hendrix also wants to help investigators looking into pumping partieswhich offer quick cheap cosmetic fixes through injections of industrial grade silicone by people with nomedical background

Hendrixs appeal for mercy also focused on what she described as a horrific 28 months at theBroward County Jail

She told the judge she had to undergo a double mastectomy losing her siliconeshyenhanced breasts

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after another inmate injured them while attempting to rape her The defense showed Weinsteinphotographs of the disfiguring scars crossing her chest

Ive lived in constant fear from the murderers rapists and violent inmates Ive had to coshyexist with Idont think Ill ever feel truly safe again Hendrix said Ive sat by helplessly as Ive watched my bodyslowly revert back to the stage I was years ago shyshy before beginning hormone therapy shyshy because I wasrefused comparable medication

Once known as Viva Hendrix was a buxom platinum blonde who worked as a makeup artist andstylist for transvestite and transgender people competing in beauty pageants

A Broward Sheriffs Office spokesman said that while Hendrix underwent surgery for medicalreasons jail officials had no evidence Donnie Hendrix was involved in any altercation requiring him toundergo a mastectomy

The spokesman added that while the jail does have a special unit for gays transvestites andtransgender inmates officials couldnt comment on individual placement

Hendrix expressed sorrow for the family of 53shyyearshyold Vera Lawrence who died on March 21 2001after attending a pumping party at an apartment in Miramar

With tears rolling down her cheeks Lawrences daughter Tangela Sears asked the judge to imposethe maximum sentence Referring to Hendrix as he Sears said the defendants actions haddestroyed her life Not just my life but a family

The trial of Hendrix and partner Mark Hawkins exposed the subculture of people that regularly receivesilicone injections to enhance breasts lips buttocks and other body parts at parties hosted atapartments and motel rooms

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Lawrence had attended such parties in the past and during the trial the defense attempted to convincejurors that her death was the cumulative result of repeated injections and not just those applied byHendrix and Hawkins

The case was tried in one courtroom before separate juries with differing results for each defendantHendrix was acquitted of thirdshydegree murder and manslaughter while Hawkins was convicted of thirdshydegree murder Hawkins could receive 15 to 20 years in prison but is appealing the verdict

Hendrix sought mercy but found none Judge Weinstein gave her the maximum for practicing medicinewithout a license and culpable negligence

The public danger posed by pumping parties cannot be mitigated by Hendrixs cooperation the judgesaid adding I think that the behavior exhibited by Donnie Hendrix in this case the high risk outweighs[any cooperation]

Ann W ONeill can be reached at awoneillsunshysentinelcom or 954shy356shy4531

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