COLLIN COUNTY, Texas — Collin County DA Greg Willis announced in a statement Thursday he will not be seeking the death penalty against convicted killer Billy Chemirmir, who is already serving two life sentences in prison.
"Billy Chemirmir is an evil person who preyed upon our most vulnerable citizens," Willis said in the statement. "Although he is certainly deserving of a death sentence, my decision today is informed by the fact that he has already been tried three times in another county and he will never be a free man again."
Chemirmir, 50, was twice found guilty of capital murder by Dallas County juries and is accused of killing 20 other Texas women. His life sentences are being served with no chance of parole.
"My decision was made in consultation with the families of the Collin County victims and in light of the recommendation of the senior prosecutors in my office," Willis said.
Chemirmir was convicted in April 2022 of capital murder in the smothering death of 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris. He received the same punishment after being convicted of killing 87-year-old Mary Brooks.
“The pain and loss he has caused will never be erased, but we can all sleep better at night knowing he has, in effect, received a death sentence. Bill Chemimir will die in a state penitentiary," Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said at the time of his conviction.
It was Mary Annis Bartel's survival of a March 2018 attack that set Chemirmir's arrest in motion. Bartel, 91 at the time, told police that a man had forced his way into her apartment at an independent living community for seniors, tried to smother her with a pillow and took her jewelry.
Before Bartel died in 2020, she described the attack in a taped interview that was played at Chemirmir's previous trials. She said the minute she opened her door and saw a man wearing green rubber gloves, she knew she was in “grave danger.”
Police said they found Chemirmir the next day in the parking lot of his apartment complex. He was holding jewelry and cash, and he had just thrown away a large red jewelry box. Documents in the box led them to the home of Harris, who was found dead in her bedroom, lipstick smeared on her pillow.
Most of Chemirmir's alleged victims lived in apartments at independent living communities for older people. The women he’s accused of killing in private homes include the widow of a man he had cared for while working as an at-home caregiver.
Chemirmir faces 11 more capital murder cases in Dallas County. He has maintained his innocence.