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The capital murder trial of accused senior living serial killer Billy Chemirmir will begin next week in a Dallas district court following jury selection on Wednesday.
Chemirmir will be tried in the death of Lu Thi Harris, 81, but he also faces a total of 18 counts of capital murder in Dallas and Collin counties. He is alleged to be tied to at least 24 deaths of older people, most of them senior living residents. If convicted, he faces an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole, according to the Dallas Morning News. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Due to pandemic restrictions, the trial will not be open to the public, including the families of the alleged victims.
In June, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot announced that he would not seek the death penalty for Chemirmir. In a statement, the district attorney said he met with the victims’ families and indicated he would request two jury trials with the goal of securing two back-to-back life sentences without the possibility of parole.
As McKnight’s Senior Living previously reported, police believe Chemirmir posed as a maintenance worker for more than a year to gain access to residents’ living quarters and then suffocated them and stole jewelry and other items to sell at area pawn shops. Most of the deaths initially were ruled to have been from natural causes until one potential victim survived and described her attack to police.
Lawsuits filed against some of the senior living communities where Chemirmir’s alleged victims lived maintain that operators did not do enough to protect residents.
A bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers introduced bills in response to the series of suspected murders thought to be tied to Chemirmir.
