Jury gets case in Texas trial of man charged with killing 18

A jury is deliberating in the capital murder trial of a man charged with killing 18 older women in the Dallas area over a two-year span

Elderly Deaths Trial (© 2022 Shafkat Anowar // The Dallas Morning News)

A jury began deliberating Thursday afternoon in the capital murder trial of a man who is charged with killing 18 older women in the Dallas area over a two-year span.

Billy Chemirmir, 49, is being tried this week only in the March 2018 smothering of 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris. Prosecutors said that after Chemirmir and Harris were both at the same Walmart, he went to her home, killed her and stole jewelry.

Defense attorney Kobby Warren said during closing arguments that the state’s case was “all bark, no bite,” and that prosecutors hadn’t proven without a reasonable doubt that Chemirmir was ever at Harris’ home.

Prosecutor Glen Fitzmartin told jurors that he gave them more than enough evidence to convict.

“This is an easy decision, mainly because we bit so much off,” said Fitzmartin, who noted that when Chemirmir was arrested, he had Harris' jewelry and the keys to her home.

“This is the individual that took Lu Thi Harris' life,” Fitzmartin said.

Prosecutors aren't seeking the death penalty. If convicted of capital murder, Chemirmir would be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

This is Chemirmir's second trial for Harris' death after the first jury to hear a case against him deadlocked. The jury in this trial heard much of the same evidence.

“Really, the biggest difference between the first trial and this trial are the 12 human beings sitting in the jury box,” said Erin Hendricks, a Dallas defense attorney and former prosecutor who is not involved in the Chemirmir case.

“Even if we reach the same destination, it will be through a different pathway,” she said.

Chemirmir, who has maintained that he’s innocent, has been charged with capital murder in the deaths of 13 women in Dallas County and five in nearby Collin County. Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot has said he plans to try Chemirmir for at least one more death, though he hasn’t said whose.

Though Chemirmir is being tried only for Harris’ death, prosecutors also presented evidence about an attack that 91-year-old Mary Annis Bartel survived the day before Harris was killed and the killing of 87-year-old Mary Brooks about six weeks earlier.

Chemirmir was arrested the day after Bartel said a man forced his way into her apartment at an independent living community for older people and held a pillow over her face.

Fitzmartin said police subsequently found that a few days earlier there had been a report of a suspicious person at the independent living community where she lived. A license plate number led officers to Chemirmir.

Police detectives testified about going to Chemirmir’s nearby apartment complex and watching as he drove into the parking lot. Detectives said he threw items into a dumpster and then, as they got him out of his vehicle, he was holding jewelry and cash in his hand.

Police have said that a large red jewelry box in the dumpster contained documents that led them to Harris’ home. They found her dead in her bedroom, lipstick smeared on her pillow.

The number of people Chemirmir was accused of killing grew as authorities reinvestigated deaths previously thought to be natural.

Most of the people were found dead in their apartments at independent living communities for older people, where Chemirmir has been accused of forcing his way into apartments or posing as a handyman. Some lived in private homes, including Harris and the widow of a man Chemirmir had cared for in his job as an at-home caregiver.