DALLAS (AP) — The retrial of a man charged with killing 18 older girls in the Dallas space over a two-year span is ready to begin Monday, after the primary jury to hear a case in opposition to him deadlocked.
Billy Chemirmir, 49, faces life in jail with out parole if he’s convicted of capital homicide in the smothering of 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris. Prosecutors have mentioned he adopted the widow dwelling from Walmart, killed her, and stole her jewellery and money.
Chemirmir faces capital homicide expenses in all 18 of the ladies’s deaths — 13 in Dallas County and 5 in close by Collin County. However, he’s at the moment solely scheduled to stand trial in the demise of Harris. Dallas County (*18*) Attorney John Creuzot, who isn’t looking for the demise penalty for Harris’ killing, has mentioned he plans to attempt Chemirmir for at the very least yet another demise, although he hasn’t mentioned whose.
Chemirmir has maintained that he’s harmless.
Loren Adair Smith, whose 91-year-old mom, Phyllis Payne, is amongst these Chemirmir is charged with killing, mentioned she was shocked by the mistrial in November and plans to attend the retrial.
“We want justice and we want closure, and we want him to not be able to hurt anyone again,” Smith mentioned.
Chemirmir was arrested in March 2018 after 91-year-old Mary Annis Bartelsaid a man compelled his manner into her condo at an unbiased dwelling group for older folks and held a pillow over her face. Bartel, who survived the assault, later found she was lacking jewellery.
According to police, when officers tracked Chemirmir to his close by condo following that assault, he was holding jewellery and money. Documents in a big purple 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 folks Chemirmir was accused of killing grew after his arrest, with many of the households of his alleged victims solely studying months or years after their liked one’s demise that authorities believed they’d been killed.
Most of the folks Chemirmir is accused of killing have been discovered lifeless in their residences at unbiased dwelling communities for older folks, the place he allegedly compelled his manner in or posed as a handyman. He’s additionally accused of killing girls in non-public houses, together with the widow of a man he had cared for in his job as an at-home caregiver.
Though Chemirmir was solely tried in November for Harris’ demise, jurors have been additionally instructed in regards to the assault on Bartel and the killing of 87-year-old Mary Brooks, who was discovered lifeless in her dwelling about six weeks earlier than Chemirmir’s arrest.
Chemirmir instructed 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 in opposition to their shopper as “quantity over quality” and asserted that prosecutors hadn’t proved Chemirmir’s guilt past an affordable doubt.
Prosecutor Glen Fitzmartin disputed that assertion. He mentioned he proved that Chemirmir and Harris have been at a Walmart on the similar time, that two-and-a-half hours later he was in possession of her property and that she had been smothered.
Creuzot instructed The Dallas Morning News:“Circumstantial evidence can sometimes be stronger than eye-witness testimony. So, in a case like this, it’s very important that the jury and every individual juror understands that.”
Toby Shook, a former Dallas County prosecutor who now works as a protection lawyer, mentioned he expects that throughout the retrial, prosecutors would possibly “change up their preparation or presentation of some of their witnesses in order to make their case clearer to the jury.”
“It was surprising that a hung jury resulted in that the state had the advantage of putting on several offenses for the jury to consider and that’s a powerful weapon the state has in a case like this,” mentioned Shook, who isn’t concerned in the case.
Smith mentioned her household assumed that her mom’s demise six years in the past in her condo in an unbiased dwelling middle was from pure causes, although it got here as a shock as a result of she was nonetheless so energetic. She mentioned 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 demise.
Smith mentioned a police detective referred to as two years later to say investigators believed her mom had been killed. She mentioned that after so a few years, a conviction would deliver closure and “a great feeling that justice has prevailed.”
