DALLAS (AP) — A Texas judge has declared a mistrial in the first murder case against a man charged with killing 18 older women in the Dallas area over a two-year span.
Judge Raquel Jones issued the ruling Friday when a jury deadlocked after deliberating since Thursday afternoon in the capital murder case against Billy Chemirmir.
The case charged the Chemirmir with killing 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris.
The mistrial raises questions about how prosecutors will proceed with the case against the 48-year-old.
Authorities have accused Chemirmir of being a prolific killer preying on the elderly.
According to the Associated Press, authorities were able to track down and arrest Chemirmir after he attacked 91-year-old Mary Annis Bartel at her apartment at an independent living community for seniors in Plano in March 2018.
Police said he was arrested after they found documents in a large red jewelry box in a trash can that led them to the body of Harris inside her Dallas home, the news outlet reported.
The AP reported that many of the victims were murdered in independent senior living communities.
His defense attorneys dismissed the prosecution evidence as "quantity over quality."
