SANTA ANA, Calif. – A 42-year-old man was sentenced today to three consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole for stabbing one of his girlfriends to death and killing their two young sons in 2012. The children’s bodies were never located.
Shazer Fernando Limas, 42, of Orange, was found guilty on December 14, 2022 of three counts of first-degree murder for killing 31-year-old Arlet Hernandez Conteras and 16-month-old Fernando Hernandez Limas and 2-month-old Emanuel Hernandez Limas. The jury also found the special circumstances of multiple murders to be true.
The jury convicted Limas on what would have been his son Fernando’s 12th birthday.
Contreras’ body was found dumped in a gutter in Los Angeles County. She had been stabbed 48 times.
On April 12, 2012, Contreras brought the couple’s sons to Limas’ apartment in Orange. The police were called to the apartment after an argument broke out between the two. Conteras left, but returned later that same day with the boys.
Sometime on April 13 or 14, 2012 Limas stabbed Contreras and killed the two young boys. On April 14, he called his new girlfriend to say he had hurt his hands in a fight while out with friends.
Limas 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.
Limas bleached out the blood stains in his carpet and moved furniture in his apartment to cover up the bleach stains.
On April 24, Limas loaded Contreras’ body into a large chest and drove a U-Haul rented in someone else’s name to dump her body in an industrial area in Los Angeles County. Limas then drove the U-Haul an additional 100 miles after dumping Contreras’ body. It is believed that Limas disposed of the bodies of 16-month-old Fernando and 2-month-old Emanuel during that time.
Contreras’ body was found the next day. The remains of Fernando and Emanuel have yet to be recovered.
Limas broke his lease on his apartment a few days later. 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.
Orange police arrested Limas following a high-speed chase on the 405 and the 5 freeways. Contreras’ phone was in his vehicle at the time he was arrested.
“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,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “Even after his conviction for the deaths of his girlfriend and his two sons, this cold-blooded killer refused to take any responsibility for their deaths or give the grieving family any peace of mind by disclosing the whereabouts of the bodies of 14-month-old Fernando and three-month-old Emanuel. These innocent babies were completely defenseless victims who were subjected to an unspeakable amount of callousness and violence and the defendant will be forever haunted by the cries of his own children as he murdered them.”
Senior Deputy District Attorney Mena Guirguis of the Homicide Unit prosecuted this case.
