An alleged serial killer is being tried this week in Texas for one of nearly two dozen murders he has been charged with.
The capital murder trial for 49-year-old Billy Chemirmir began Monday in Dallas over the death of Mary Brooks, an 87-year-old woman who was found dead on the floor of her Dallas-area condo in early 2018. .
Charges against Chemirmir grew in the years following the 2018 arrest, as police in the Dallas area re-examined the deaths of older people believed to be natural before the families sounded alarm bells. Four indictments were added this summer.
Chemirmir was convicted of capital murder in April in the strangulation death of 81-year-old Lou Thi Harris and sentenced to prison without parole. If found guilty in Brooks’ death, he would receive the same punishment. His first trial in Harris’ death ended in a wrongful trial last November when the jury stalemate. Chemirmir has maintained his innocence.
In March 2018, 91-year-old Mary Ennis Bartell survived an attack and told police that a man forcibly broke into her apartment in a free-living community for seniors, tried to press her with a pillow and her jewelry. taken. His survival and interviews with the police triggered Chemirmir’s arrest.
Police said they found Chemirmir in the parking lot of his apartment complex the next day. He had jewelry and cash and had thrown away the large red colored jewelry box. The documents in the box took them to the house of Harris, who was found dead in his bedroom.
During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Harris and Chemirmir were checking out hours before they were found dead at a Walmart at the same time.
In a video interview with the police, Chemirmir told a detective that he made money buying and selling jewelry, and had also worked as a caregiver and security guard.
Most of Chemir’s alleged victims lived in apartments in free-living communities for older people. The women he has accused of murder in private homes include the widow of a man whom he cared for while working as a caregiver at home.
Brooks’s grandson, David Cudihy, testified that he found his body on January 31, 2018. She said she used a cane occasionally, but was still healthy and active.
Police testified that grocery receipts showed Brooks was at Walmart the day before his body was found. Surveillance video from the store shows a vehicle that matches the description of Chemirmir leaving just after Brooks, going in the same direction.
Dallas County District Attorney John Cruzot decided to seek life imprisonment instead of the death penalty when he tried Chemirmir on two of his 13 murder counts in the county.
Prosecutors in neighboring Colin County have not said whether they will try any of the nine counts of murder against Chemirmir.