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Trial begins in Dallas for serial killer accused of killing 22 elderly women

2022-10-03T11:26:04.387Z


Billy Chemirmir, who has other pending cases, faces life in prison for the murder of Mary Brooks, whose death allowed another homicide to be uncovered.


By The Associated Press via

NBC News

After Mary Brooks was found dead on the floor of her Dallas, Texas-area apartment with her shopping bags still on the counter, authorities decided the 87-year-old woman had died of natural causes.

Even after her family discovered missing jewelry - including a coral necklace she loved and diamond rings - it took another woman to be attacked weeks later for police to reconsider their decision.

Serial murder defendant Billy Chemirmir looks back during his retrial on April 25, 2022, at the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Dallas, Texas.Shafkat Anowar/AP

The evidence suggests that the author was Billy Chemirmir, 49, who this Monday sits in the dock at the start of the trial for the murder of Brooks, one of the 22 older women he is accused of killing.

Charges against Chemirmir increased after he was arrested in 2018, as police across the Dallas area re-examined deaths of older people that had been deemed natural, though families raised alarms over missing jewelry.

This summer four more accusations were added.

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Chemirmir, who maintains his innocence, was convicted in April of capital murder in the suffocation death of 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

He will receive the same sentence if he is convicted of Brooks' death.

His first trial in Harris's death finally ended in a mistrial last November.

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Loren Adair Smith, whose 91-year-old mother is among those accused of killing Chemirmir, will be one of many victims' relatives to attend the trial, which she says is "a huge sense of mixed feelings".

"While we have that sense of dread, we're really excited to come back and close this chapter," Smith said.

Chemirmir was arrested after Mary Annis Bartel survived an assault in March 2018. The woman, who was 91 at the time, told police a man had broken into her apartment in a nursing home. , tried to smother her with a pillow and took her jewelry.

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Before he died in 2020, Bartel described the attack in a taped interview played at previous trials he has faced from Chemirmir.

He said the moment he opened his door and saw a man wearing green rubber gloves, he knew he was in "serious danger."


Police said they found Chemirmir the next day in the parking lot of his apartment complex.

She was carrying jewelry and cash, and had just thrown out a large red jewelry box.

The documents in the safe led them to Harris's home, and he was found dead in her bedroom, lipstick smeared on the pillow.

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At trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Harris and Chemirmir were at the same time shopping at a Walmart hours before the woman was found dead.

In a video interview with police, Chemirmir told a detective that he made money buying and selling jewelry, and had also worked as a caretaker and security guard.

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Most of his alleged victims lived in apartments located in residences for the elderly.

Among the women accused of killing in private homes is the widow of a man she had cared for while working as a home carer.

Brooks' grandson, David Cuddihee, testified that he found her body on Jan. 31, 2018. He said she had used a cane at times, but was still healthy and active.

"She was walking to church, she was walking to the dentist down the street," Cuddihee said.

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Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot, a Democrat, decided to ask for life in prison instead of the death penalty when he tried Chemirmir in two of his 13 capital murder cases in the county.

His Republican opponent has criticized that decision as he seeks re-election in the nation's deadliest state.

In an interview with The Dallas Morning News, Creuzot said that he is not against the death penalty, but that among the things he takes into account when deciding whether to apply it are the time it takes someone to be executed, the costs of appeals and whether the person would remain a danger to society behind bars.

Chemirmir, he added, "is going to die in jail."

Prosecutors in neighboring Collin County have not said whether they will prosecute any of their nine pending capital murder cases in Chemirmir.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2022-10-03

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