Billy Chemirmir, Kenyan man accused of murdering 22 women, killed in Texas prison

Billy Chemirmir, the Kenyan national serving a life sentence for murdering two elderly women, was killed by his cellmate in a Texas prison, officials said. Per ABC News, the deceased 50-year-old is also accused of murdering 20 other women.

Chemirmir was being held at the Coffield Unit in Tennessee Colony, Texas when he was killed. Texas Department of Criminal Justice said officials found his body in his cell on Tuesday morning. The department also said the cellmate accused of killing him is also a murder convict.

The circumstances surrounding Chemirmir’s killing as well as his cellmate’s identity were, however, not disclosed. Born in Kenya, Chemirmir’s profession as a home health care aide saw him working in multiple cities in north Texas. He was, however, accused of killing his elderly and helpless patients and making away with their valuables, ABC News reported.

Juries in the counties of Dallas and Collin indicted him on 22 capital murder charges. In 2022, two different juries in Dallas County convicted him of the 2018 murders of 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris and Mary Brooks, 87.

And though a jury in Collin County indicted him on nine capital murder charges, prosecutors handling the cases said they were not going to pursue the death penalty after he was convicted of Harris’ and Brooks’ killings. 

“I won’t be mourning the murder of convicted serial killer Billy Chemirmir. Rather, my thoughts today are with the families of the precious ladies he murdered,” said Collin County Criminal District Attorney Greg Willis in a statement on Tuesday. “These families have been through more than we can imagine, and I pray that someday they can find peace.”

In a 2022 interview with The Dallas Morning News, Chemirmir maintained his innocence at the time, telling the news outlet that he was “100 per cent sure I will not go to prison.”

“I am not a killer,” Chemirmir claimed. “I’m not at all what they’re saying I am. I am a very innocent person. I was not brought (up) that way. I was brought (up) in a good family. I didn’t have any problems all my life.”