Trial on hold after 'Black Madam' falls ill

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Monday, March 2, 2015
Padge Victoria Windslowe
WPVI-WPVI

PHILADELPHIA -- An aspiring hip-hop artist who boasts about her talent for black-market "body sculpting" is ill and won't be back on the witness stand in her murder trial until at least Wednesday.

Court officials postponed Padge-Victoria Windslowe's trial Monday after hours of delays. They didn't specify her illness.

Windslowe claims celebrities and other clients chose her over licensed surgeons because of her deft work. But authorities say she caused a 20-year-old London dancer's death in 2011 and injured several others through shoddy industrial-grade silicone injections.

The 45-year-old known as the Black Madam started testifying Thursday. She says she's performed thousands of buttocks enhancements for strippers, transgender women and run-of-the-mill women seeking more "self-esteem."

Windslowe faces 20 to 40 years in prison if convicted of third-degree murder. She has been in prison since 2012.