Suspect in killings of twenty-two aged Texans goes on trial once more

A person accused of killing 22 aged ladies within the Dallas space and stealing jewellery and valuables has been linked by DNA proof to one of many deaths, a prosecutor mentioned Monday.

Billy Chemirmir, 49, is on trial for capital homicide within the dying of 87-year-old Mary Brooks. It’s Chemirmir’s third trial. His first trial, within the smothering dying of 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris, led to a mistrial final November when the jury deadlocked. He was retried and located responsible in April and sentenced to life with out parole. If convicted in Brooks’ dying, he’ll obtain a second sentence of life with out parole.

Prosecutor Glen Fitzmartin mentioned in opening statements that whereas presenting proof within the deaths of Brooks and Harris, he would additionally present that DNA hyperlinks Chemirmir to the dying of 80-year-old Martha Williams.

Chemirmir has maintained his innocence. His legal professional entered a not responsible plea on his behalf Monday, however declined to make a gap assertion. His arrest was set in movement in March 2018 when Mary Annis Bartel — 91 on the time — instructed police {that a} man had pressured his method into her house at an impartial residing neighborhood for seniors, tried to smother her with a pillow and took her jewellery.

Before Bartel died in 2020, she described the assault in a taped interview that was performed to jurors Monday, because it was within the earlier trials. She mentioned the minute she opened her door and noticed a person sporting inexperienced rubber gloves, she knew she was in “grave danger.” “He said: ‘Don’t fight me, lie on the bed,’” Bartel mentioned.

Police mentioned after they discovered Chemirmir the following day within the car parking zone of his house complicated, he was holding jewellery and money, and had simply thrown away a big purple jewellery field. Documents within the field led them to the house of Harris, who was discovered useless in her bed room, lipstick smeared on her pillow.

Following Chemirmir’s arrest, police throughout the Dallas space reexamined the deaths of different older folks that had been thought-about pure, at the same time as their households found lacking jewellery. He has been charged with 22 counts of capital homicide in deaths spanning May 2016 to March 2018. Four of these indictments had been added this summer time. Evidence offered at earlier trials confirmed Harris and Chemirmir had been trying out on the identical time at a Walmart simply hours earlier than she was discovered useless.

According to proof, Brooks had gone buying on the identical Walmart simply weeks earlier. When Brooks was on the Walmart, Chemirmir was sitting in his automotive within the car parking zone, watching folks, Fitzmartin mentioned.

“She leaves, he leaves. His phone, you will hear, follows from the Walmart to her house,” Fitzmartin mentioned. “She arrives at her house and she’s not heard from again, ever.”

The day after that journey to Walmart, Brooks’ grandson discovered her useless in her rental, groceries nonetheless in luggage on the counter.

Most of the folks Chemirmir is accused of killing lived in flats at impartial residing communities for older folks. He’s additionally accused of killing ladies in non-public houses, together with the widow of a person he had cared for in his job as an at-home caregiver.

In a video interview with police, Chemirmir instructed a detective that he made cash shopping for and promoting jewellery and had additionally labored as a caregiver and a safety guard. Fitzmartin mentioned Monday that Williams and Bartel lived in the identical neighborhood, and that Williams had been discovered useless in her house about two weeks earlier than the assault on Bartel.

As Williams’ household cleaned out her dwelling, they found “there was something not right,” together with lacking objects and a pillow with an odd stain, he mentioned.

DNA discovered on that pillow can’t exclude Chemirmir, Fitzmartin mentioned, and a search of Chemirmir’s car turned up gloves with DNA that was a match for Williams.

Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot, a Democrat, sought life sentences moderately than the dying penalty when he tried Chemirmir on two of his 13 capital homicide circumstances.

In an interview with The Dallas Morning News, Creuzot mentioned he’s not towards the dying penalty, however amongst issues he considers when deciding whether or not to pursue it are the time it takes earlier than somebody is executed, the prices of appeals and whether or not the particular person would nonetheless be a hazard to society behind bars. Chemirmir, he added, is “going to die in the penitentiary.”

Chemirmir’s attorneys mentioned in his earlier trials that prosecutors didn’t show their case past an inexpensive doubt.

Prosecutors in neighboring Collin County haven’t mentioned if they may strive any of their 9 capital homicide circumstances towards Chemirmir.