A Kenyan convicted of murder over the killing of 22 grandmothers aged 70 years and older has been found dead while in prison.
The convict, Billy Chemirmir, was serving a life sentence at Coffield unit near Tennessee Colony in Texas, US, when he was found dead.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson Hannah Haney told the press that the suspect, who was aged 50, was killed by his cellmate at the maximum security facility.
A report by The Dallas Morning News indicated Chemirmir was beaten to death by the cellmate who was also serving a sentence related to murder when he made sexual comments about his children.
Reports further indicated that the first staff member appeared roughly 20 minutes after the beating had already taken place.
Phillip Hayes, the attorney who had represented Chemirmir, expressed sorrow at the death arguing that it was inhumane.
“Regardless of what people think you did or didn’t do, no one deserves to be killed in prison,” he stated.
The AP News reported that some of the family members of the victims were relieved at the outcome noting that it avenged their kin's death.
“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,” one of the daughters of Chemirmir's victims told the outlet.
The convict was arrested by the US police who, in October 2022, revealed that they relied on CCTV footage retrieved at a popular shopping store.
At the time, during the trial of the 50-year-old, it was revealed that the Kenyan stalked his victims at the store before following them to their homes.
Chemirmir first caught their attention in 2018 after an 81-year-old woman, Lu Harris, was found dead in her home in Dallas, Texas.
The murder of the elderly woman led to his conviction in April 2022.
