An Orange County man was sentenced Friday to three consecutive life terms in prison for the more than decade-old slayings of his girlfriend and their two young sons, as a judge unsuccessfully asked him to divulge the location of the boys, whose bodies have never been found.
Shazer Fernando Limas during brief comments at his sentencing hearing described the killing of his girlfriend — 31-year-old Arlet Hernandez Contreras — as self-defense and denied killing his two boys — 16-month old Fernando Hernandez Limas and 3-month-old Emanuel Hernandez Limas — or knowing the location of his sons’ bodies.
An Orange County Superior Court jury deliberated for around three hours in mid-December before finding Limas guilty of first-degree murder for all three killings. The verdict came on what would have been the older boys’ 12th birthday.
Deputy District Attorney Mena Guirguis urged Orange County Superior Court Judge Gary S. Paer to sentence Limas to three consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole rather than having the terms run concurrently, citing “the heinous nature of these crimes.”
“The one thing we still do not know is where the boys are buried,” Guirguis said. “The family, us, law enforcement, the public — if he wants to share that information, we would be all ears.”
Limas, now 42, did not testify before the jury, but during his comments on Friday he told the judge that “all the facts were not stated” during the trial.
“Justice was not served, sir,” Limas said. “I am not responsible for the murder of Fernando or Emanuel.”
“The million dollar question is, if you are not responsible for the murder, where are they?” Judge Paer responded.
In a halting response, Limas claimed that Contreras came at him with a knife and he had tried to take it away from her and escape. He told the judge that afterward when he went looking for the boys in another room in his Orange apartment he couldn’t find them, adding that “I never physically had them with me.”
Limas comments did not appear to sway the judge, who noted that surveillance footage showed Contreras entering Limas’ apartment with both boys, and that “there was a huge amount of direct and circumstantial evidence” to sustain his conviction for their murders. The judge also noted that Contreras suffered more than 40 stab wounds, including many to the back.
“This case truly shocks the conscience,” the judge said.
During Limas’ trial, both the prosecution and defense acknowledged that Limas was a womanizer and that Contreras would show up when Limas didn’t want her around and confront him or the other women he was with.
The prosecutor told jurors that Limas lied to other women about having kids, and had told friends that Contreras was ruining his life and he wished they hadn’t had children. The defense said despite Limas telling Contreras that he didn’t want to be with her, she became increasingly obsessed with his infidelity.
Surveillance footage showed Contreras and the boys arriving at Limas’ apartment complex on the night of April 12, 2012. Sometime on April 13 or 14, prosecutors say, Limas killed Contreras and the two boys, apparently injuring his hand in the process and requiring that he get medical attention on the night of the 14th.
Limas allegedly used Contreras’ phone to text her mother, pretending to be Contreras and claiming she had taken the boys on a sudden vacation. Limas left at least Conteras’ body to rot in a balcony closet of his apartment for at least ten days, prosecutors said.
Limas moved some furniture in an apparent attempt to cover up the blood in his apartment and hired a friend to clean up some blood stains. Meanwhile, Limas seemed to go on with his life as if nothing had happened, going out to dinners and clubs and birthday parties and inviting others over for get-togethers at his apartment.
On April 24, Limas loaded Contreras’ body into a large chest and placed it in a U-Haul a friend had rented to move furniture, prosecutors said. He dumped her body — covered in plastic and a comforter — into a gutter in an industrial area in Los Angeles County. GPS data showed Limas then driving the U-Haul into the mountains.
Contreras’ body was discovered by workers in La Puente the following day.
On April 28, Limas abruptly moved out of his apartment without warning, breaking his lease. Workers who were attempting to prepare the unit for the next tenant found a foul odor, a large bleach stain, blood spatter on the walls and ceilings and blood underneath the carpet.
Days later, Limas was taken into custody after a high-speed chase. He had Contreras’ phone with him at the time of his arrest.
Repeated efforts by law enforcement to find the bodies of the boys were unsuccessful. But the prosecutor said no one has seen or heard from them in the past 10 1/2 years.
Associate Defender Michael Hill told jurors during the trial that the wounds Limas suffered during the confrontation with Contreras appeared to be defensive, as if he had grabbed an attacker’s knife. The defense attorney said Contreras had previously threatened to hurt the children, adding that she “ultimately followed through with these threats and it resulted in her own death.”
Hill argued that Limas’ actions after the deaths were of someone in “reaction mode,” not someone who had planned out a killing.
Source: Orange County Register
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