A hairdresser pleaded guilty to poisoning a co-worker by pouring a skin care solution in the woman’s water bottle.
Surveillance footage showed Luz Lemonfield, a 28-year-old hairdresser at the Bluemercury salon and spa at RIO Washingtonian Center in Gaithersburg, Maryland, pouring Mario Badescu Drying Lotion into the woman’s water bottle on Oct. 31, 2015.
Lemonfield was not trying to kill the woman, her attorney said.
The victim made advances toward Lemonfield at a party that Lemonfield rejected, Lemonfield’s attorney said. Her attorney said that marked the deterioration of their relationship.
Lemonfield was trying to get back at the woman for spitting in her lunch, her attorney said. Her attorney added that Lemonfield never saw the woman spit in her lunch.
Mario Badescu Drying Lotion contains isopropyl alcohol, water, calamine, camphor, sulfur, zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, talc, glycerin and salicylic acid, according to the Mario Badescu Skin Care website. A couple of those ingredients are flammable, and most of them are poisonous if ingested or inhaled.
Bluemercury sells a 1-ounce bottle of the product for $17.
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After drinking the contaminated water, the woman felt sick and threw up several times, court documents said. Documents said she went to the hospital after calling 911. Lemonfield was arrested after police saw the surveillance footage.
