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Man Charged with Murdering 22 Elderly Women
A man accused of murdering 22 elderly women in the Dallas area over two years was found guilty of one of their deaths on Friday, marking his second murder conviction.
Billy Chemirmir, 49, received a second life sentence without the possibility of parole, this time for the suffocation death of Mary Brooks, 87. In less than thirty minutes, jurors reached a verdict against Chemirmir, who is already serving a life sentence without parole for the April conviction in the death of 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris.
Authorities claim he preyed on elderly women, murdering them and stealing their valuables. Each time, their deaths were initially attributed to natural causes, even though family members reported missing jewellery.
In closing arguments, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot stated, “This is a deliberate, concerted effort to stalk, surveil, kill, steal, strip, and sell.”
Creuzot chose not to seek the death penalty. After the verdict on Friday, he stated that the two sentences mean Chemirmir “will die in prison.”
Creuzot stated that the eleven additional capital murder charges against Chemirmir in Dallas County had been dismissed. Chemirmir, who maintains his innocence, has not yet been told if any of the nine capital murder cases in neighbouring Collin County will be brought against him.
The prosecution informed the jury that the evidence demonstrated that Chemirmir followed Brooks home from Walmart, suffocated her, and stole her jewellery.
An elderly woman survives the attack
An elderly woman’s survival precipitated Chemirmir’s arrest during a March 2018 attack. Mrs. Mary Annis Bartel, 91 at the time of the attack, told police that he pushed his way into her apartment in a senior community for independent living, tried to suffocate her with a pillow, and stole her jewellery.
Following Chemirmir’s arrest, police throughout the Dallas metropolitan area reexamined deaths and increased the charges against him. Many of the elderly women’s victims’ children were perplexed by their mothers’ deaths at the time, as they were still healthy and active despite their age. This summer, four indictments were added.
The majority resided in apartments within independent living communities for seniors. Chemirmir cared for the widow of a man who resided in a private residence while working as an elderly caregiver.
The defence attorneys informed the jury that the prosecution had not provided sufficient evidence to convict.
Defence attorney Phillip Hayes’s closing argument stated, “They are begging you to fill in the holes that they cannot.”
Following the verdict, he informed reporters of his intention to appeal.
While jurors decided only Chemirmir’s guilt in the death of Brooks this week, they also heard evidence that led to his conviction in the deaths of Harris and 80-year-old Martha Williams.
First-time DNA evidence linking Chemirmir to one of the deaths, Williams, was presented by prosecutors.
The assailant sold the items he stole
The jury also heard testimony that Chemirmir possessed or offered to sell jewellery and valuables belonging to the elderly women and that cellphone records placed him close to the victims.
Before her death in 2020, Bartel described the attack in a taped interview played at Chemirmir’s trial. She stated that as soon as she opened her door and saw a man wearing rubber gloves, she realized she was in “extreme danger.”
The next day, police discovered Chemirmir in the parking lot of his apartment complex carrying jewellery and cash, having just discarded a large red jewellery box. Documents in the jewellery box led investigators to Harris’ residence, where she was discovered dead in her bedroom with lipstick on her pillow.
Just hours before Harris’s body was discovered, Chemirmir was shopping at the same Walmart as Harris, according to evidence presented at trial.
Several weeks earlier, when Brooks’ grandson discovered her body in her condo, grocery bags from the same Walmart were sitting on her counter.
Surveillance footage captured a car matching Chemirmir’s description pulling out just after Brooks and travelling in the same direction.
Ann Brooks, the daughter of Brooks, stated following the verdict that her family was “thrilled knowing he won’t be able to harm anyone again.”
“Our cherished mother, Mary Sue, has passed away, and her jewellery is gone, but her love and thoughts will live on forever in our hearts,” she said.
Keywords: definition of elderly, elderly instruments
