Bodies of mom and 2 sons left in closet for days, CA officials say. Now dad convicted
A 42-year-old has been found guilty in the 2012 killing of his girlfriend and their two sons, California officials said.
Shazer Fernando Limas was found guilty on three counts of first-degree murder on accusations of killing his girlfriend, Arlet Hernandez Contreras, 31, and his 16-month-old and 2-month-old sons Fernando and Emanuel, according to a news release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
The conviction “comes on what would have been Fernando’s 12th birthday,” officials said.
On April 12, 2012, Contreras brought the couple’s sons to the man’s apartment, officials said.
Police said they were called to the apartment after a fight between the two broke out. Contreras left the apartment but later returned with her sons.
Between April 13 and April 14 the man stabbed Contreras and killed the two little boys, officials said. He later called his other girlfriend, according to officials, saying he got into a fight while out with friends and injured his hands.
Limas “let the bodies of Contreras and the boys rot in a balcony closet for 10 days while he continued to go to dance clubs, rented limos and even had friends over to his apartment,” officials said.
“Arlet and little Fernando and Emmanuel did not deserve to have their lives so violently snuffed out by someone who cared only about himself and was willing to kill everyone and anyone who got in his way, including his own sons,” Orange County District Attorney Tod Spitzer said in the news release.
On April 24, Limas put Contreras’ body in a “large chest” and drove a U-Haul that was reserved under someone else’s name to dispose of her, according to the release.
The woman’s body was found in a gutter in Los Angeles County the following day, officials said. She had been stabbed 48 times.
Investigators believe Limas also dumped his sons’ bodies during that time but they were never found, officials said.
Limas broke his lease and management at his apartment called Orange County police after officials said they got reports of a “suspicious smell, blood spatter on walls and pools of blood under the bleached carpet.”
Police said they arrested the man after he took them on a high-speed chase. Contreras’ phone was in his car when he was arrested.
“He killed his entire family and threw them away like trash,” Spitzer added.
He has a Feb. 3 sentencing hearing where he faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
This story was originally published December 15, 2022 at 3:06 PM with the headline "Bodies of mom and 2 sons left in closet for days, CA officials say. Now dad convicted."