California man convicted of killing girlfriend, 2 babies
SANTA ANA — A Southern California man was convicted Wednesday of stabbing to death his girlfriend and killing her two baby sons, whose bodies were never found.
Shazer Fernando Limas, 42, of Orange, was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances of committing multiple murders. He could face life without possibility of parole when he is sentenced in February.
Limas stabbed 31-year-old Arlet Hernandez Contreras 48 times at his home in April 2012 following an argument a day or two earlier, the Orange County district attorney's office said in a statement.
Prosecutors said he then killed her sons, 16-month-old Fernando Hernandez Limas and 2-month-old Emanuel Hernandez Limas.
Limas, who also had another girlfriend, "let the bodies of Conteras and 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," the DA's office said.
After bleaching blood stains from his carpet, Limas loaded Contreras's body into a large chest and drove it in a rented U-Haul to an industrial area in neighboring Los Angeles County, where her body was found dumped in a gutter, prosecutors said.
After getting rid of that body, Limas is believed to have driven another 100 miles to dispose of the bodies of the children, which were never found, prosecutors said.
"He killed his entire family and threw them away like trash," District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement.
A few days later, Limas broke his lease on his apartment.
"Management from the apartment contacted the Orange Police Department after workers reported a suspicious smell, blood spatter on walls and pools of blood under the bleached carpet," the DA's statement said.
Limas was arrested following a high-speed chase on two freeways.