Retrial to begin in Texas for man charged with killing 18

DALLAS — The retrial of a man charged with killing 18 older girls within the Dallas space over a two-year span is about to start Monday, after the primary jury to listen to a case towards him deadlocked.

Billy Chemirmir, 49, faces life in jail with out parole if he is convicted of capital homicide within the smothering of 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris. Prosecutors have stated he adopted the widow residence from Walmart, killed her, and stole her jewellery and money.

Chemirmir faces capital homicide prices in all 18 of the ladies’s deaths — 13 in Dallas County and 5 in close by Collin County. Nonetheless, he is at present solely scheduled to face trial within the loss of life of Harris. Dallas County District Lawyer John Creuzot, who is not in search of the loss of life penalty for Harris’ killing, has stated he plans to attempt Chemirmir for at the least yet another loss of life, although he hasn’t stated whose.

Chemirmir has maintained that he is harmless.

Loren Adair Smith, whose 91-year-old mom, Phyllis Payne, is amongst these Chemirmir is charged with killing, stated she was shocked by the mistrial in November and plans to attend the retrial.

“We would like justice and we would like closure, and we would like him to not be capable to damage anybody once more,” Smith stated.

Chemirmir was arrested in March 2018 after 91-year-old Mary Annis Bartel stated a person pressured his method into her condo at an unbiased residing group for older individuals and held a pillow over her face. Bartel, who survived the assault, later found she was lacking jewellery.

In response to police, when officers tracked Chemirmir to his close by condo following that assault, he was holding jewellery and money. Paperwork in a big crimson jewellery field that police say he had simply thrown away led them to a house, the place Harris was lifeless in her bed room, lipstick smeared on her pillow.

The variety of individuals Chemirmir was accused of killing grew after his arrest, with a lot of the households of his alleged victims solely studying months or years after their cherished one’s loss of life that authorities believed they’d been killed.

Most people Chemirmir is accused of killing have been discovered lifeless of their residences at unbiased residing communities for older individuals, the place he allegedly pressured his method in or posed as a handyman. He’s additionally accused of killing girls in non-public houses, together with the widow of a person he had cared for in his job as an at-home caregiver.

Although Chemirmir was solely tried in November for Harris’ loss of life, jurors have been additionally advised concerning the assault on Bartel and the killing of 87-year-old Mary Brooks, who was discovered lifeless in her residence about six weeks earlier than Chemirmir’s arrest.

Chemirmir advised police in a video-recorded interview that was performed at his trial that he made cash by shopping for and promoting jewellery and had additionally labored as an at-home caregiver and as a safety guard.

Chemirmir’s attorneys rested their case with out calling any witnesses or presenting proof. They dismissed the proof towards their shopper as “amount over high quality” and asserted that prosecutors hadn’t proved Chemirmir’s guilt past an inexpensive doubt.

Prosecutor Glen Fitzmartin disputed that assertion. He stated he proved that Chemirmir and Harris have been at a Walmart on the identical time, that two-and-a-half hours later he was in possession of her property and that she had been smothered.

Creuzot advised The Dallas Morning Information: “Circumstantial proof can typically be stronger than eye-witness testimony. So, in a case like this, it’s essential that the jury and each particular person juror understands that.”

Toby Shook, a former Dallas County prosecutor who now works as a protection legal professional, stated he expects that throughout the retrial, prosecutors would possibly “change up their preparation or presentation of a few of their witnesses with the intention to make their case clearer to the jury.”

“It was stunning {that a} hung jury resulted in that the state had the benefit of placing on a number of offenses for the jury to think about and that’s a strong weapon the state has in a case like this,” stated Shook, who is not concerned within the case.

Smith stated her household assumed that her mom’s loss of life six years in the past in her condo in an unbiased residing heart was from pure causes, although it got here as a shock as a result of she was nonetheless so lively. She stated that whereas packing up her mom’s issues, they found lacking jewellery and filed a police report however assumed the gadgets had been taken by somebody after her loss of life.

Smith stated a police detective referred to as two years later to say investigators believed her mom had been killed. She stated that after so a few years, a conviction would convey closure and “an awesome feeling that justice has prevailed.”