Buford Jonathan King killed three men between 2011 and 2016. The first, Alberto Contreras, died in Visalia in 2011. Aleksey Shelest and Donnie Lee, both of Squaw Valley in Fresno County, died in 2016. The community was renamed Yokuts Valley in 2023. The deaths were separate events, years apart in the first instance and months apart in the second, and King knew all three men.
For most of that time no one was charged. The cases came together in 2019, after King had been arrested on unrelated charges and his girlfriend gave a Fresno County Sheriff's detective information about the two Squaw Valley cases. In April 2019 King admitted the killings to detectives. In March 2026 he reached a plea agreement, and on May 8, 2026 a Fresno County judge sentenced him to 50 years to life plus life without the possibility of parole.
Little is known of King's early life. The Fresno County Sheriff's Office described him in 2019 as an Army veteran who had served in Iraq. At his sentencing his defense attorneys pointed to two tours in Iraq and said he suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder, abc30 reported. The Sheriff's Office gave his age as 31 when he was arrested in August 2017 and 33 when the murder charges were announced in 2019. GV Wire gave it as 40 at sentencing in 2026. His birth date, birthplace and family background were not reported.
By 2017 he was living in Squaw Valley, in Fresno County. The community was later renamed Yokuts Valley, and the 2026 reports use the newer name.
The Sheriff's Office said King knew all three men. Few personal details about them have been made public.
Alberto Contreras was 51 and lived in Visalia, in neighboring Tulare County, according to the Sheriff's Office. The prosecutors' account in 2026 places his death in Visalia in 2011. Some later reports spell his first name Albert.
Aleksey Shelest was 35 and lived in Squaw Valley. He died in 2016.
Donnie Lee was 62 and also lived in Squaw Valley. He died in November 2016, according to the account King's girlfriend later gave investigators. The District Attorney's account says Lee had been living with King and had argued with him over money. After the arrest in 2019, Lee's daughter told KMJ that her father was a good, hardworking man. She told abc30 that the family had prayed for a long time "for closure and for justice to be served."
Fresno County Sheriff's homicide detectives took over the cases of Shelest and Lee in 2016 and treated both as suspicious, Undersheriff Steve Wilkins said in 2019. The Sheriff's Office described the investigation that ended with King's arrest as a three-year effort. For a long period neither case produced a suspect who could be charged.
In August 2017, King was arrested in connection with an incident in which a man he knew was injured while doing construction work near his home. The Sheriff's Office announced the arrest on August 25, 2017. King, then 31, was booked into the Fresno County Jail on three felony charges: an assault charge and two charges involving unlicensed devices. Bail was set at $65,000. The Sheriff's Office said the motive was not known.
The arrest, on August 24, was a planned operation involving the Sheriff's SWAT team, homicide detectives and other county and city agencies. King came out voluntarily and was taken into custody.
Homicide detectives took part because they wanted to know whether King was connected to the Shelest and Lee cases. At the time they found no evidence linking him to either man, and the Sheriff's Office said so plainly.
King bailed out of jail on January 13, 2018. He was back in court on February 20, 2019, when the judge ordered him into custody, and he stayed in jail from then on.
The breakthrough came in March 2019. According to the District Attorney's office, as reported by GV Wire in May 2026, Detective Jose Diaz received information from King's girlfriend. She said she was afraid for her safety, because King had threatened to kill her if she left him. She told the detective what she knew about the two men's deaths.
abc30 reported in 2022 that King was already in jail when she came forward. It also reported that, about three years after the two deaths, she had made an unexpected visit to Lee's girlfriend, apologized for her loss and said information would come out that would give the families closure. She later told detectives, Diaz said, that she had witnessed several acts of domestic violence and child abuse by King and feared he would kill her.
Warrants were served in the case on March 20, 2019, and county and city agencies from Fresno County, Tulare County and Visalia joined the investigation.
On April 14, 2019, King was interviewed in the Fresno County Jail. According to the District Attorney's account, he admitted killing Shelest and Lee. Detectives also learned, from information that arrived later in April, that Contreras might have been killed in Tulare County, where King had once lived. On April 25 King gave investigators information about Contreras.
Fresno County and Tulare County detectives, Visalia police and the Tulare County Sheriff's Office all worked on the case that month. The California Department of Justice later confirmed through DNA analysis the identities of the three men: Contreras, Lee and Shelest.
On July 31, 2019, the Fresno County District Attorney's Office filed three counts of murder against King, and the Sheriff's Office announced the case that day. Bail was set at $3 million. The Sheriff's Office described the arrest as the end of a three-year investigation and said King met the FBI definition of a serial killer, someone who kills two or more people in separate events. abc30 reported that investigators were looking into whether there were other victims. No further victim has been publicly identified.
Undersheriff Wilkins said he wanted the Squaw Valley community to be assured that the person responsible had been identified, and that King "won't be getting out anytime soon," according to abc30.
The case took almost seven years to resolve, and little of the proceedings before 2026 was made public.
In August 2022 a Fresno County judge was expected to decide at a hearing whether the evidence was enough for King to stand trial on the murders, abc30 reported. Prosecutors were then expected to say whether they would seek the death penalty. What the judge ruled, and whether capital punishment was pursued, has not been reported. King's attorney questioned whether detectives had obtained his confession lawfully and had not said what approach the defense would take.
On March 3, 2026, King entered a plea agreement. On May 8, 2026, in a Fresno courtroom, Judge Alvin Harrell sentenced him to 50 years to life plus life without the possibility of parole. The Sun-Gazette described this as an aggregate term for three murders committed between 2011 and 2016. abc30 reported that he had pleaded guilty to the murders. As part of the agreement he gave up the right to appeal. Senior Deputy District Attorneys Liz Owen and David Olmos of the Homicide Unit prosecuted. King's attorneys were Curtis Sok and Michael McKneely.
At the hearing Lee's daughter spoke to King directly. She told him he was an evil man and said that the pain and trauma would never fully go away.
King told investigators that he killed the men because of abuse he said he had seen or heard of. At sentencing his attorney Curtis Sok said he was truly remorseful and repeated the claim of abuse against two of the men.
The District Attorney's Office rejected the idea that the killings could be justified on those grounds. It said the allegations had never been adjudicated and that in several instances investigators could not verify them independently. The Sheriff's Office said the justice system does not allow people to take the law into their own hands, according to the Sun-Gazette. Prosecutors told the court the killings were not acts of vigilantism, KMJ reported.
The abuse allegations against the dead men are claims made by King and his attorney. No court tested them, and prosecutors said they could not be confirmed.
The counts of conviction, the degree of murder and any special circumstance have not been reported. King pleaded guilty to three murders and was given 50 years to life plus life without parole. One radio report gave the term as 50 years to life without the possibility of parole, which differs from the three other outlets, which reported 50 years to life plus life without the possibility of parole.
The 2019 statement that other victims might exist has not been followed by any reported charge or attribution.
King was sentenced on May 8, 2026 to serve his term in state prison. No later development has been reported.
2011: Alberto Contreras is killed in Visalia.
2016: Aleksey Shelest is killed; Sheriff's homicide detectives take over his case and Lee's as suspicious.
November 2016: Donnie Lee is killed.
August 2017: King is arrested on unrelated felony charges; detectives find nothing at that time linking him to the two men.
January 13, 2018: King posts bail.
February 20, 2019: A judge orders King into custody; he stays in jail.
March 2019: King's girlfriend gives a detective information; warrants are served on March 20.
April 14, 2019: In a jail interview, King admits killing Shelest and Lee.
April 25, 2019: King gives information about Contreras; the three men are later identified through DNA.
July 31, 2019: Three counts of murder are filed; bail is set at $3 million.
August 2022: A hearing is expected on whether King will stand trial.
March 3, 2026: King enters a plea agreement.
May 8, 2026: Sentenced to 50 years to life plus life without the possibility of parole.