{"id":307308,"date":"2026-05-09T06:32:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T06:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/307308\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T06:32:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T06:32:21","slug":"fresno-triple-murder-case-ends-with-life-terms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/307308\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno triple murder case ends with life terms"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 40-year-old Fresno County man, who was convicted of killing three men, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Friday.<\/p>\n

Buford King sat quietly as Judge Alvin Harrell III delivered his punishment for killing Donnie Lee, 62, Aleksey Shelest, 35, and Alberto Contreras, 51.<\/p>\n

King received life sentences for the three murders and for using a gun in two of the deaths.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors Liz Owen and David Olmos took the death penalty off the table in exchange for King pleading guilty to the first-degree murder charges.<\/p>\n

King\u2019s defense attorney\u2019s argued King, who served in the military, was abused as a child and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after being stationed in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Judge Harrelll acknowledged that while King may have been abused as a child or may suffer from PTSD, he isn\u2019t the only one, nor is it a defense for murder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many people who have suffered consequences from horrendous situations, but I don\u2019t recall them being involved in behaviors such as this,\u201d Harrell said.<\/p>\n

Several family members of the victims were in the audience Friday, including Lee\u2019s daughter Jessica Brumley who spoke during the sentencing hearing.<\/p>\n

She recalled some of her favorite memories about her father such as learning how to drive a stick shift, playing softball and riding horses.<\/p>\n

Lee was reported missing by family members in 2016, but King wasn\u2019t charged with his murder until 2019 when detectives got a tip about King\u2019s involvement in Lee\u2019s disappearance.<\/p>\n

Fresno County sheriff\u2019s detectives said during a preliminary hearing that Lee was killed with a shotgun blast to the head and then buried in the Yokuts Valley area of eastern Fresno County.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will never be the same after learning how he was shot and buried as if his life had no meaning,\u201d Brumley said through tears. \u201cThat pain and trauma will never fully go away. My heart hurts for the other families that had to hear the horrendous acts of violence their loved ones had to go through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Owen sympathized with the family members of the victims, calling their experience a nightmare.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese family members have gone through years of not knowing where their family members were and then learning about what happened to them in gruesome detail,\u201d Owen said. \u201cI do hope that knowing that this individual will not be in our community ever again gives them some closure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fresno County Sheriff\u2019s detectives believe King, a resident of Yokuts Valley, was driven to kill by a sense of outrage, believing his victims had hurt women or children.<\/p>\n

King\u2019s ex-girlfriend told detectives King confided in her that Shelest was also buried on the property and that King believed Shelest had assaulted a woman. Detectives later discovered the body of Shelest.<\/p>\n

King\u2019s first victim was Contreras, who was strangled to death in 2010 after King suspected he had been assaulting a young woman inside an apartment in Visalia.<\/p>\n

Detectives testified during King\u2019s preliminary hearing that King asked to be let into the apartment and when Contreras refused, he kicked down the door. The two men got into a scuffle, King hit Contreras several times in the face, then choked him until he was unconscious.<\/p>\n

King fled the apartment only to return to get rid of the body. He found an orchard where he was going to bury it, but first he did something unusual with his corpse. He propped it up on a tree stump and used it for target practice<\/a>, shooting his victim in the face and chest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was really messed up,\u201d said Anita Gonzalez, Contreras\u2019 sister.<\/p>\n

Contreras\u2019 sisters Gonzalez and Alicia Lupercio also attended King\u2019s sentencing hearing. They fondly recalled Contreras as a loving brother who loved to cook for the family.<\/p>\n

Not knowing where her brother was located was agonizing for the family, Gonzalez said, especially for their mother. Sadly, she died in 2012 before his body was discovered.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe died not knowing that happened to him,\u201d Gonzalez said in tears. \u201cIt was very hard for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Robert Rodriguez<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fresno Bee<\/p>\n

A Valley native, Robert has worked at The Fresno Bee since 1994, covering various topics including education, business, courts and agriculture.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 40-year-old Fresno County man, who was convicted of killing three men, was sentenced to life in prison…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-307308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}