VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — In a swift and resounding verdict, a jury found a woman accused of running an unlicensed dental lab guilty on all counts Wednesday. Cristina Caro-Valencia, 56, faced four charges of performing invasive procedures without a license.
All the Commonwealth had to prove for a guilty verdict was that Caro-Valencia did an invasive procedure — on the soft tissues of the mouth, or the hard tissues of the teeth themselves. Prosecutors said in their closing argument that if she invaded them at all then she was guilty, and the jury agreed.
The jurors reached guilty verdicts on all four counts in just 30 minutes. Caro-Valencia, 56, showed no emotion inside the courtroom, and had no comment outside the courthouse.She ran the Cosmetica Dental Lab in the same building on Virginia Beach Boulevard where her husband runs a veterinary clinic on Virginia Beach Boulevard, near North Lynnhaven Road.Caro-Valencia’s procedures included crowns, root canals, bridges and fillings, as well as injections of anesthesia. Defense attorney Trey Kelleter tried to convince the jury that although his client was unlicensed, what she was doing was not invasive.Commonwealth’s witness Dr. Richard Archer, a board-certified endodontist and chair of the board of Virginia dental examiners, testified what Caro-Valencia was doing was invasive for both the soft tissues and the teeth…