Billy Chemirmir [Photo: Courtesy]

A Kenyan suspected of killing more than a dozen women in the US has been indicted on three additional charges of capital murder. Billy Chemirmir from Eldama Ravine in Baringo County now faces 17 capital murder charges and two counts of attempted capital murder.  A capital murder charge in Texas carries one of two punishments: Either the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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According to the Dallas Morning News, the healthcare worker has also been linked to seven other deaths, bringing the total to 24 deaths in North Texas. Chemirmir, 48, is accused of smothering elderly women and stealing their jewelry, cash and other items in Dallas and Collin counties in Texas to sell in Dallas-area pawn shops. He allegedly posed as a maintenance worker to gain access to the women's apartments.

The Dallas Morning News on Wednesday reported that a Dallas County grand jury on Tuesday handed down three new capital murder charges against Chemirmir. "Chemirmir has now been charged with 17 counts of capital murder and two counts of attempted capital murder in Dallas and Collin counties. He has also been linked through medical examiner reports and civil case filings in seven other deaths, bringing the total to 24 deaths in North Texas,” reads a post on the website.

The new charges against Chemirmir as reported by the publication are in the deaths of Joyce Abramowitz, Doris Wasserman and Margaret White. All three were allegedly killed at The Tradition-Prestonwood, a luxury senior living complex in Dallas. The women had been previously identified as possible victims through civil lawsuits against the complex.

Abramowitz died in July 2016. In April, the Dallas Morning News noted, the woman had reported to police that several pieces of jewellery had been stolen while she was on vacation.  White died in August 2016. The executor of her estate, Paul Wright, noticed her apartment was missing her fine jewellery - including a wedding ring.

Wasserman was found dead in December 2017. According to her family, they had dropped her off at her apartment at around 3.30pm, but when they came back around 8pm, they found her lying on the bed, fully clothed and unresponsive. Chemirmir was initially arrested in March 2018 in connection with the death of 81-year-old Dallas woman Lu Thi Harris, making for a total of 12 alleged victims then, according to Fox News, which also said that he was living in the US illegally.

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But his lawyer, Phillip Hayes, said that Chemirmir “has denied it since Day 1” that he had a role in Harris’ death. “They have circumstantial evidence that puts him in the area but that’s as far as the evidence goes,” Hayes said. According to Fox4 television station, a break in the case came when Chemirmir reportedly forced his way into an apartment of a 91-year-old woman, telling her to “go to bed. Don’t fight me,” according to an arrest affidavit filed in Collin County.

The woman was smothered with a pillow into unconsciousness and robbed. However, healthcare workers revived her and she told investigators that her attacker had stolen her box of jewellery. The police identified Chemirmir from a car number plate and were able to find and follow him days later, when they watched him throw a jewellery box into a dustbin. They traced the box to Harris, according to the affidavit.

Hayes was quoted by the Dallas Morning News as saying that a lot of the evidence against Chemirmir is circumstantial. "It may put him in the area of an alleged murder, but it doesn’t prove he was the killer. It seems like every unexplained death they come up with, they’re pinning on him,” Hayes said. “If you look at all of it, it doesn’t stand up."

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In July, Hayes was quoted saying the Covid-19 pandemic will delay his client’s trial that was scheduled for April next year.  Chemirmir, who has been in custody since March 2018, has maintained his innocence and is in a Dallas jail after failing to raise $11.6 million (Sh1.17 billion) bail.