A 42-year-old California man was sentenced Feb. 3 to three consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole for fatally stabbing his girlfriend and their two young sons about a decade ago.
Shazer Fernando Limas, 42, of Orange was convicted Dec. 14 for killing Arlet Hernandez Conteras, and their children 16-month-old Fernando Hernandez Limas and 2-month-old Emanuel Hernandez Limas in April of 2012, according to authorities.
“A young mother and her two young sons deserved so much more than to be left to rot in a closet and discarded like trash by the very person who was supposed to protect them,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement after the sentencing.
Contreras’ body was found dumped in a gutter in Los Angeles County. She had been stabbed 48 times, according to the DA’s Office. The children’s bodies were never found, authorities said.
The killings stem from an argument Limas and Conteras had at his Orange apartment, which resulted in police being called.
A few days later, authorities said he killed all three when Contreras returned with the boys and then hid their bodies in a closet on his apartment’s balcony for 10 days while he went to dance clubs, rented limos, and had friends over, the DA’s Office said.
He loaded the bodies into a U-Haul rented in someone else’s name and dumped Conteras’s body in an industrial area in Los Angeles County days later and then drove the U-Haul an additional 100 miles where it is believed he disposed of the children’s bodies, authorities said.
Limas broke his lease on his apartment a few days later. Management contacted the Orange Police Department after workers entered and reported a suspicious smell, blood spatter on walls, and pools of blood under the bleached carpet, the DA’s office said.
Limas was arrested about a week later, when police attempted to pull him over for a traffic stop, leading to a high-speed chase on the 405 and the 5 freeways, according to authorities.
Limas admitted to killing his girlfriend, but not their children, according to his defense attorney Michael Hill.
