Man gets life for hacking 3 to death with machete

A 25-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison for hacking to death his girlfriend, her teenage daughter and their landlord with a machete in central Iowa.

The Des Moines Register reports that Carlos Hernandez-Ventura was sentenced Friday, a month after being found guilty on three counts of first-degree murder.

Prosecutors say Hernandez-Ventura used a machete on Oct. 29 to kill 34-year-old Lourdes Flor De Leake, 14-year-old Melany Barraza and 78-year-old Juan Jimenez Tejada at a home in Perry, about 30 miles northwest of Des Moines.

Hernandez-Ventura testified at trial that Leake's estranged husband ordered the deaths, but investigators say they found no evidence he was involved.

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