According to the officials at the Texas prison, a guy serving a life term for the murder of 22 elderly women who he preyed on for their jewelry and other valuables was slain by his cellmate on Tuesday. The man was serving his sentence for the murders.
Hannah Haney, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, has verified that Billy Chemirmir, fifty years old, was found dead in his cell at a prison located in the remote East Texas area. The previous year, Chemirmir had been found guilty of the murders of two other women. According to Haney, he was killed by a fellow inmate who was also serving time for murder and was detained at the same time.
Two weeks before to Chemirmir’s passing, all one hundred of Texas’ correctional facilities were placed on lockdown because of an upsurge in the number of homicides that prison officials ascribed to the use of drugs.
Haney did not disclose any other information on the suspected motives for the murder, the way in which Chemirmir died, or the cellmate’s identity.
The news that he wasn’t responsible for the deaths of the persons he was accused of killing came as a surprise and a relief to their relatives.
My mum passed away as a result of her fear. This individual’s passing was anything from a peaceful experience. At a news conference, Shannon Dion, whose mother Doris Gleason, 92 years old, was one of the individuals Chemirmir was suspected of killing, commented, “There’s some relief in feeling that he didn’t get off easily.”
The coroners in Dallas and the nearby cities maintained declaring the deaths to be accidental, despite the fact that the family had repeatedly raised concerns about missing gems.
Chemirmir was detained when a 91-year-old woman who was the victim of an incident at an assisted living facility told police that a guy had broken into her room, tried to suffocate her with a pillow, and taken her jewels. The woman also told police that the intruder had stolen her jewelry.
The next day, police said that they spotted Chemirmir in the parking area of his apartment building, where he was purportedly holding jewels and cash and had just abandoned a large red jewelry box. The police also claimed that they found Chemirmir in the parking lot of his apartment building. After following a paper trail left by the jewelry box, the police found Lu Thi Harris, age 81, dead in her bedroom. The paper trail was created by the jewelry box.
Following Chemirmir’s arrest, officials in the area reexamined prior homicides, which ultimately led to more allegations of wrongdoing on his part. The children of some of the victims have spoken out about their confusion at the time of their parents’ deaths, stating that their mothers, although being older, were in good shape and still extremely active. The children of several of the victims have spoken out about their confusion at the time of their parents’ deaths.
In the initial trial for Chemirmir’s alleged role in the murder of Harris, which took place in Dallas County, the case ended in a mistrial. A second trial determined that he was responsible for the death of Mary Brooks, an elderly woman who was 87 years old, in addition to Harris.
Attendees during Chemirmir’s second trial in Dallas included representatives of the families of the people he was previously convicted of murdering. Chemirmir was given two images of Norma French, who was Ellen French House’s mother. One portrait depicted Norma French when she was alive, and the other depicted her after she had passed away at the age of 85.
Before putting out the first picture, House remarked, “This is my incredibly lovely mother.” “This is my mother after you coerced her into taking off the wedding ring she insisted on keeping on her finger,” I said.
The senior citizen apartment developments were home to the great majority of those who lost their lives. As part of his in-home caregiving work, Chemirmir was responsible for taking care of the widow of a man whom he had previously provided care for.
Chemirmir is being charged with a total of twenty-two charges of murder in the first degree. While Collin County, which is neighboring to Dallas County, only had nine charges, Dallas County had thirteen. Following the successful prosecution of two individuals, the remaining 11 charges brought in Dallas County were dismissed. They were not interested in carrying out the worst possible sanction. The previous month, the county government of Collin, Texas, announced that it would not be seeking the death penalty either.
Chemirmir was handed two consecutive sentences of life without the possibility of release despite his protestations that he was innocent. He was locked up at the Coffield Unit in Tennessee Colony, which is located around 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Dallas.
An attorney by the name of Phillip Hayes referred to Chemirmir’s demise as “just a horrible tragedy.”
Hayes went on to say that in a circumstance in which people are held against their will, “nobody deserves to be killed at any point,” regardless of the circumstances.
This month, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced that lockdown measures will be put into force owing to “a rise in dangerous contraband and drug-related inmate homicides.” This rise was cited as the reason for the need to implement the lockdown protocols. The organization said on September 6 that there have been 16 homicides committed by convicts against other inmates so far in 2018. In 2021, there were nine killings like this, and in 2022, there were seven.
As a result of the lockdown, inmates had far less leeway to move about the facility and engage in activities that involved the outside world. In addition to this, there was an increase in the number of searches conducted on both the inmates and the staff. In addition to that, procedures for drug testing have been made far more stringent.
A representative for the department named Amanda Hernandez stated that regular operations had resumed after exhaustive searches were carried out. According to the information that she provided, the lockdown was lifted in 75 different units as of Tuesday. The Coffield Unit, which was holding Chemirmir, was one of the 25 facilities that continued to maintain their lockdown status at that time.
According to Haney, the OIG is investigating into the circumstances surrounding his passing.