Billy Chemirmir, a Kenyan who was serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison after killing 22 elderly women aged 70 years and older, was found dead in his prison cell.
Chemirmir was incarcerated at the Coffield unit near Tennessee Colony in Texas when he met his death.
According to Hannah Haney, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the 50-year-old convict was killed by his cellmate in the maximum security facility.
The Dallas Morning News reported that Chemirmir was fatally beaten by his cellmate, who was also serving time for a murder-related offense. According to reports, the attack occurred after Chemirmir made inappropriate sexual comments about his cellmate’s children.
In further shocking developments, it was revealed that it took nearly 20 minutes for the first prison staff member to respond to the incident.
Phillip Hayes, the attorney who had represented Chemirmir during his trial, expressed deep sorrow at the violent death of his client, emphasizing the inhumanity of such an outcome.
“Regardless of what people think you did or didn’t do, no one deserves to be killed in prison,” Hayes stated.
Victims’ family members relieved at Billy’s death
After learning of Chemirmir’s death, some family members of his victims expressed a sense of relief, believing it brought a form of closure to their loved ones’ tragic deaths.
“My mother died in fear. This man did not have a peaceful passing. There’s some relief in feeling that he didn’t get off easily,” said a daughter of one of the victims.
Chemirmir had come to the attention of U.S. authorities in 2018 when an 81-year-old woman named Lu Harris was found dead in her Dallas, Texas, home. This murder led to Chemirmir’s eventual conviction in April 2022.
Chemirmir’s arrest and subsequent conviction in 2022 were based on evidence, including CCTV footage from the store, which played a crucial role in the investigation into the series of murders he committed.
