Cheers erupted in a Texas courtroom after suspected serial killer Billy Chemirmir was found guilty of capital murder in the death of one of his alleged victims.
Chemirmir, 49, is accused of entering living facilities often posed as a maintenance worker before sneaking into the rooms of at least 18 elderly women, who he allegedly smothered with pillows before stealing their jewelry, authorities said.
The jury heard testimony from the only woman believed to have survived Chemirmir.
“He just smashed a pillow down hard over my face and my chest and I just couldn’t breathe,” she testified.
It took the jury only 40 minutes to find Chemirmir guilty of suffocating 81-year-old Lu Harris, whose lipstick-stained pillow used to kill her was shown to the jury.
Chemirmir first laid eyes on Harris at a Walmart and then followed her home, prosecutors said.
After he killed her, he stole her jewelry box, which was later found in a dumpster, authorities said. All the valuable jewelry inside of it had been taken, officials said.
The jury came back with a guilty verdict after four days of testimony in what was Chemirmir’s retrial. He was first tried for Harris’ murder in November, but a deadlocked jury resulted in a mistrial.
After the verdict was read, family members of not only Harris but also other women suspected to have been killed by Chemirmir gathered.
“Just losing your mom naturally, to go through that grieving process, then to find out that they’re murdered, and then you start thinking about her last moment on this world, and the last thing that she looked at, and um, that’s really tough,” one of alleged victims’ daughters told Inside Edition.
The verdict carries with it a life sentence with no possibility of parole, but a second capital murder trial will be held in the hope to obtain a second conviction if for some reason Chemirmir’s conviction is reversed on appeal, he will not be freed from prison, officials said.
