8 September 28–OctOber 4, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents ▼ CRIME MURDERED BY ANOTHER MURDERER “CONVICTED MURDERER BILLY CHEMIRMIR KILLED IN TEXAS PRISON BY CELLMATE. BY SIMONE CARTER B illy Chemirmir, the home health aide accused in the homicides of 22 North Texas seniors, was himself killed in prison on Sept. 19. He was 50 when he died at the hands of his cellmate. Chemirmir had targeted older women in homicides and was ultimately convicted in two smothering deaths. In April 2022, a Dallas County jury found him guilty in the murder of Lu Thi Harris, 81, for which he received a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Then in October, he was convicted of slaying 87-year-old Mary Brooks — another life sen- tence sans parole. The convicted killer would spend the rest of his days in the Coffield unit in Tennessee Colony, a roughly 104-mile drive southeast of Dallas. Chemirmir was indicted on 13 capital murder charges in Dallas County and nine more capital murder charges in Collin County. The latter county’s district attorney revealed in August that he’d decided against pursuing the death penalty. The cellmate who is believed to have killed Chemirmir had been serving time for murder out of Harris County, Amanda Her- nandez, communications director for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, told the Observer via email. Neither his identity nor the circumstances of Chemirmir’s death have been revealed. Hernandez said that Chemirmir was dis- covered in his cell early on the morning of Sept. 19 and that an investigation is being car- ried out by the Office of Inspector General. Reached for comment, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot told the Ob- server that “obviously, things like this hap- pen in prison. “With somebody like him and his of- fenses, there may be an increased chance that something like this could happen,” Creuzot said. “I don’t know if that’s why he was killed, but I don’t really have any feel- ings about it one way or the other, honestly.” The Dallas Police Department declined the Observer’s request for comment. Chemirmir stands accused of targeting el- derly North Texans, either at their homes or in senior living centers. Prosecutors have said he would use pillows to smother his victims to death before stealing their valuables. Dur- ing one trial, a merchant with a Diamond and Gold Exchange store claimed to have shelled out more than $91,000 to Chemirmir for jew- elry over the span of around two years. Initially, most of the deaths were believed to be from natural causes, but that changed after a survivor told police that Chemirmir had attacked her. In June, Chemirmir’s name again ap- peared in the news after his team filed an appeal related to Harris’ killing. Attorneys argued that data cited in expert testimony regarding Chemirmir’s cellphone use had been misleading. Creuzot reportedly planned to clinch two convictions against Chemirmir before dis- missing the other 11 Dallas County cases. He discussed his stance on the death penalty with The Dallas Morning News in a story published last September, ahead of his reelection race. Faith Johnson, his GOP op- ponent at the time (and a former Dallas County DA), slammed him for not seeking capital punishment in Chemirmir’s case. But Creuzot explained to The News that multiple factors weigh into his decision over whether the death penalty should be pursued. “Let’s be honest, these cases jump from Austin … to Washington and back and forth and back and forth,” Creuzot said. And, the way he saw it, Chemirmir was “going to die in the penitentiary.” ▼ NEIGHBORHOODS ‘ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM’ WEST DALLAS GROUP FILES COMPLAINT TO GET RID OF INDUSTRIAL POLLUTERS. BY JACOB VAUGHN D espite calls for change, the Singleton Corridor neighborhood in West Dal- las has been zoned for industrial uses for decades, putting it right in the path of big polluters like a nearby shingle factory. Janie Cisneros, the leader of the neighborhood ad- vocacy group Singleton United/Unidos, says that allowing things to continue as they are now is harming her and her neighbors. “Leaving our community zoned indus- trial has just wreaked havoc on our quality of life, on our ability to build wealth, [and] the neighborhood’s health,” Cisneros said. These are just some of the reasons why Cisneros and Singleton United/Unidos re- cently joined a coalition of groups and indi- viduals in filing a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) complaint against the city of Dallas. “Us filing this HUD complaint is us put- ting the city on notice that we’re not tolerat- ing racism,” she said. “We’re calling it out because that’s what it is. It’s environmental racism. This HUD complaint shows that we are serious about wanting justice and we’re going to pursue every avenue available to seek justice for all of those decades of harm that has come from racist zoning practices.” Organizations and individuals with a group called the Coalition for Neighborhood Self-Determination filed a HUD complaint against the city last year, claiming it has failed to address their majority Black and Hispanic communities’ proximity to heavy industry. Singleton United/Unidos joins the signers of the original complaint: Marsha Jackson, who lived next door to Shingle Mountain and still lives next to heavy indus- trial zoning in the Floral Farms neighbor- hood; the neighborhood association Floral Farms Neighbors United/Vecinos Unidos; the Joppa Environmental Health Project; and the Coalition for Neighborhood Self- Determination. The separate complaint that was filed on behalf of Singleton United/Uni- dos has since been combined with the com- plaint that was filed last year. The city did not respond to a request for comment. The complaint alleges that Dallas’ indus- trial zoning adjacent to single-family neigh- borhoods of color violates the Fair Housing Act because the city enacted land-use rules and zoning ordinances that restrict or deny housing opportunities or otherwise make dwellings unavailable to people based on their race, color or national origin. The adja- cency to industrial zoning harms residents because it makes them unable to sell or buy homes or obtain loans for their homes, ac- cording to the complaint. For example, people have been displaced because of the industrial zoning in Cisneros’ neighborhood, she said. “When our homes break down or they’re in need of serious re- pair, we run into issues trying to get the per- mits to fix them up and then we can’t build back,” Cisneros said. “If a home gets so bad that it needs to be demolished, we can’t build back. So, many people have been up- rooted and displaced because of these is- sues. There’s just so much harm because of the way that our area is zoned.” Last year, coalition members proposed something called an “environmental justice overlay district” that could systematically remove industrial zoning and land uses that perpetuate these alleged fair housing viola- tions. The groups also recommended the city make its zoning process more respon- sive to environmental justice or racial equity issues. But they say Dallas has failed to in- corporate these suggestions to address the fair housing violations they see every day. Michael Daniel and Laura Beshara, the lawyers for the groups, explain in the com- plaint that white, non-Latino neighbor- hoods are not subjected to the same industrial zoning placed on their homes. After calls to rezone the West Dallas neighborhood, the City Plan Commission initiated a hearing earlier this year to do just that. But since then, there has been no movement on the hearing or any indication from the city about when the process will move forward. Similarly, GAF, operator of a shingle fac- tory in West Dallas, has filed for a zoning change that would continue industrial uses on its property until 2029, when GAF plans to shut down plant operations. Despite some calls from the community to do so, GAF hasn’t been willing to shorten that timeline. There’s also been no movement on their proposed zoning change. The groups say a HUD investigator has already been assigned to the case and has conducted multiple interviews with resi- dents, experts and allies involved with these issues. They now await the results of the in- vestigation. “This is our way of seeking that justice that this neighborhood really deserves,” Cis- neros said. “This neighborhood has been ne- glected and just tortured, honestly, for so many decades that it really needs to stop.” Evelyn Mayo, chair of the environmental group Downwinders at Risk and a fellow at Paul Quinn College, told the Observer she hopes the result of the complaint will mirror the results of a HUD complaint that was filed in Chicago. In that case, HUD accused the city of Chicago of intentionally steering polluters to low-income communities of color already overburdened with pollution. The federal department threatened to withhold tens of millions of dollars a year in funding if the city didn’t change its practices, according to the Chicago Sun Times. The city settled the complaint with HUD in May this year and is now required to abide by a “voluntary com- pliance agreement” with the department. City departments were required to come up with an “environmental justice action plan” by Sept. 1 to outline how they will take steps to protect neighborhoods from burdens as- sociated with intensive industrial and trans- portation uses, according to the Sun Times. Unfair Park from p6 “I have been less hopeful as the summer months progressed,” he told the Observer. “I knew Mr. Hazelbaker’s intentions have al- ways been to vacate the downtown Y. His premise is flawed. We lose an icon of down- town Dallas that helped the urban commu- nity and the proceeds will instead benefit suburban family Y programs.” Hazelbaker has denied claims he is seek- ing to move out of downtown for good. In an email to the Observer, he said that he and his team are still interested in keeping a pres- ence downtown, but there’s no timetable on when a decision will be made. He added that commercial realtor Cushman & Wakefield, at his request, is developing more informa- tion on sites downtown and in uptown and is presenting it to the metro board. The CEO declined to disclose the name of the buyer of 601 N. Akard St. As for the idea there may soon be a new T. Boone Pickens location somewhere near the old one? Hoffmeyer isn’t holding his breath. Should a new downtown or uptown facility ever come to fruition, many mem- bers find it hard to believe it will come close to offering what the current one has for decades. “The footprint will be much smaller without a pool, basketball courts or racquet- ball courts,” Hoffmeyer said. “You had all those amenities with zero debt against the facility. Now, you intend to buy in a much more expensive area of town. Further, I do not see him [Hazelbaker] following through. Much like how he told us he would have a location to settle to prior to any sale. It’s all lip service and the business community that frequents the T. Boone Pickens Y knows as much.” Art Credit Convicted murderer Billy Chemirmir
