{"id":201679,"date":"2026-03-03T04:37:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T04:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/201679\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T04:37:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T04:37:27","slug":"california-trial-set-for-florida-cosmetologist-charged-in-death-of-kim-kardashian-lookalike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/201679\/","title":{"rendered":"California trial set for Florida cosmetologist charged in death of Kim Kardashian lookalike"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A trial has been set in the San Francisco Bay Area for a Florida woman accused of providing a cosmetic injection that killed a woman who was known as a Kim Kardashian lookalike, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p>The San Mateo County District Attorney&#8217;s Office announced Monday that jury selection is set to begin on March 9 in the trial of Vivian Alexandra Gomez, who is charged in the 2023 death of Christina Gourkani. <\/p>\n<p>Gomez, a 53-year-old from Royal Palm Beach, is facing charges of involuntary manslaughter and practicing medicine without a license, along with enhancements for great bodily injury. She pled not guilty to all charges.<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/kim-kardashian-lookalike-death-030226.jpg#.jpeg\" alt=\"kim-kardashian-lookalike-death-030226.jpg \" height=\"349\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\"  loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  Vivian Alexandra Gomez (left), who is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the April 19, 2023 death of Christina Gourkani (right), a model who became known as a lookalike for reality TV star Kim Kardashian.<\/p>\n<p>                CBS<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors said Gourkani, a model who resembled the reality TV star and who had hundreds of thousands of social media followers, hired Gomez to perform an illegal gluteal silicon injection. According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/news-events\/press-announcements\/fda-warns-about-illegal-use-injectable-silicone-body-contouring-and-associated-health-risks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Food and Drug Administration<\/a>, the injections have not been approved and can cause serious injuries, disfigurement and even death.<\/p>\n<p>On April 19, 2023, Gomez flew to San Francisco International Airport, prosecutors said. She then met Gourkani and her fianc\u00e9e at the Burlingame Marriott Hotel to perform the procedure.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors said Gourkani fell ill quickly after the injection and was taken to Mills Peninsula Hospital. She died the following day of respiratory failure and a pulmonary embolism.<\/p>\n<p>Gomez traveled back to Florida where she was later arrested. She waived extradition and was brought back to San Mateo County to face charges.<\/p>\n<p>According to the DA&#8217;s office, opening statements are scheduled to take place on March 11, with the trial expected to take four weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Gomez remains out of custody on $200,000 bail. She was ordered to surrender her U.S. and Colombian passports and cannot leave California without a GPS tracking device.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors said Gomez is also barred from performing any medical or cosmetic procedures or possessing any instruments to perform procedures.<\/p>\n<p>\n          More from CBS News\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A trial has been set in the San Francisco Bay Area for a Florida woman accused of providing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[41758,553,11921,52609,101,103,102,397,104,106,105,29283],"class_list":{"0":"post-201679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-burlingame","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-kim-kardashian","11":"tag-manslaughter","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","14":"tag-san-francisco-news","15":"tag-san-mateo-county","16":"tag-sf","17":"tag-sf-headlines","18":"tag-sf-news","19":"tag-south-florida"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}