Free Republic

Esteban Nunez, 27, pleaded guilty to the 2008 stabbing death of college student Luis Santos in San DiegoThe son of a once-prominent California lawmaker, convicted in the stabbing death of a Bay Area man, has been released from prison after his sentence was reduced by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Esteban Nunez, 27, pleaded guilty to the 2008 stabbing death of college student Luis Santos in San Diego. Nunez is the son of Fabian Nunez, who was speaker of the state assembly and a political ally of Schwarzenegger. Prosecutors said Esteban Nunez and three other men were angry because they were refused...

SAN DIEGO -- San Diego County prosecutors asked a state court Wednesday to overturn former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's last-minute decision to slash the prison sentence for the son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, his friend and political ally. The civil lawsuit filed in San Diego County Superior Court is the latest fallout from the Republican governor's decision, which angered prosecutors, the victim's family and other Republicans. A day before his term ended in January, Schwarzenegger cut by more than half the sentence for Esteban Nunez, to 7 years from 16 years. The younger Nunez pleaded guilty in the 2008...

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sat down with Newsweek recently for one of the most extensive interviews since his January exit from office. Schwarzenegger addresses everything from criticisms of one of his final acts as the state's chief executive to his own body image in his post-bodybuilding days, saying the effect of aging on his 63-year-old physique makes him "feel sh--y when I look at myself in the mirror." Below are some excerpts from the more than 2,500-word piece. Read the full article at this link. On controversy surrounding his 11th hour decision to reduce the prison sentence for the son...

Arnold Schwarzeneger has admitted that his controversial decision to commute a jail term for a killer on his last day as governor of California was ‘to help a friend’. In an flippant outburst Schwarzenegger said that he ‘felt good’ about cutting nine years off the 16-year sentence for Esteban Nuñez, 20, even though it was a favour to his political ally father. He said he refused to apologise for his actions - and arrogantly mocked anyone who mistakenly believed his motives had been altruistic.

The father of a young man who was killed in a fight involving the son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez said Wednesday he is upset about a letter former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sent him after reducing the younger Núñez's prison sentence. On Jan. 2, his last day in office, Schwarzenegger cut the prison sentence of Esteban Núñez from 16 years to seven. He didn't contact the Santos family to seek their opinions before he issued his order. On Saturday, Fred Santos, the victim's father, said a letter from Schwarzenegger arrived at his home "out of the blue." The letter,...

In his last remaining hours as California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger issued three sentence commutations. The most notable went to the son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, Esteban Núñez, who is serving time for voluntary manslaughter. Núñez's legal problems began in San Diego on Oct. 4, 2008. After Núñez, then 19, and some friends were not admitted to a fraternity party, they went looking for a fight. They found a group of students who also had been drinking. After a short but fatal clash, Luis Dos Santos, 22, lay dying. Schwarzenegger wrote that he reduced Núñez's sentence from 16 years...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger decision to commute the prison sentence for the son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez has outraged some of the outgoing governor's critics, including a victim's father. On his last day in office, Schwarzenegger shortened Esteban Nunez's sentence to seven years, saying he thought the 16-year sentence was excessive. The move came just hours before Schwarzenegger left office. Nunez pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon for his role in a fight that killed 22-year-old Luis Santos near San Diego State University in 2008. The victim's father called the decision ridiculous and politically...

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's decision to reduce the prison sentence of a former Assembly speaker's son sparked outrage Monday, from the district attorney who prosecuted Esteban Núñez to local families whose loved ones are spending more time in prison – for lesser crimes. "We were shocked to hear of the governor's last-minute commutation, which greatly diminishes justice for victim Luis Santos and re-victimizes his family and friends," San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said in a prepared statement. She said her office was not consulted about the sentence reduction, in which Núñez's prison term was cut from 16 years...

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger pursued a triangulation strategy after an embarrassing defeat on his referenda in his first term, and like Bill Clinton, succeeded in winning a second term. And like Bill Clinton, Schwarzenegger decided to issue controversial executive-clemency actions in the eleventh hour of that term, with one in particular almost certain to further tarnish his legacy. Schwarzenegger commuted the sentence of Esteban Nunez for his role in the murder of a college student, reducing a 16-year prison term to just seven years, apparently without consulting the family of the victim.

On his final night in office, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reduced the prison sentence of the son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, Esteban Nuñez, who had pleaded guilty to participating in the killing of a college student. The governor also granted several other commutations and pardons and gave plum government appointments to political allies and the spouse of his chief of staff. Schwarzenegger announced the moves in a batch of eleventh-hour press releases e-mailed to reporters. Esteban Nuñez, now 21, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for his role in the stabbing death of Luis Santos. Schwarzenegger cut the...

Outgoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has commuted the prison sentence of the son of a former state Assembly speaker, cutting his sentence from 16 years to 7 years in the 2008 killing of a Concord man. The move came just hours before Schwarzenegger was to leave office. In 2009, Esteban Nuñez, son of Fabian Nuñez, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the fatal stabbing of Luis Dos Santos, 22, during a fight in San Diego. He and co-defendant Ryan Jett were sentenced to 16 years in prison, the maximum sentence. Santos, who was attending San Diego Mesa College, was killed in...

Retiring celebrity governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California was bad for the GOP in so many ways, I’ve stopped counting them. So, how did Schwarzenegger leave office? By committing one last shameful act of back-scratching politics as usual and granting a commutation to the son of a Democrat political crony, former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (his longtime collaborator on job-killing environmental regulations) .

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, just hours before leaving the governor’s office, shaved nine years off the combined 16-year sentence of Esteban Nunez, the son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. The younger Nunez was one of three young men charged in a knife fight near San Diego State University in October 2008, in which Luis Dos Santos was stabbed to death. The man who wielded the knife in the fatal attack, Ryan Jett, entered a plea agreement with prosecutors and was sentenced to state prison. Esteban Nunez wielded a knife that injured another participant in the fight. He pleaded guilty to...

San Diego, CA (AP) -- A judge has sentenced the son of former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez to 16 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of a San Diego college student.

Regulations: A California legislator pushes a November ballot initiative to free the state from the job-killing shackles of a 2006 law designed to fight climate change. The other choice is freezing in the unemployment line. At last report, California's unemployment rate was 12.3%, with 2.25 million residents looking for work. So one would assume the first rule of holes would apply — when you're in one, stop digging. Yet there was Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger touting his state's green initiatives in Copenhagen as California barrels toward full implementation of its own version of job-killing cap-and-trade. "The desire and hope and desperate...

December 2, 2008 ELK GROVE ― The teenage son of former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, is one of four people arrested in the murder of a San Diego student. Detectives have arrested Ryan Jett, Esteban Nunez, Leshanor Thomas and Rafael Garcia, all 19 years old, at different locations in Sacramento County. Police say the victim, 22- year old Luis Santos was leaving a party on Oct. 4 with four friends when a fight broke out with a second group of four men. The verbal altercation escalated into a physical fight, which led to Santos and two of his friends...

Former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez has taken a lucrative seat on the board of directors for a workers' compensation insurer after helping broker a 2004 deal that benefited the industry. The Los Angeles Democrat was termed out of the Assembly on Sunday, and on Monday, Zenith National Insurance Corp. appointed him to its board. Company filings say that directors are paid $90,000 per year, with an additional $40,000 paid for every committee on which they serve. Núñez said he did not know if his post was paid. "You have to ask Zenith," he said. Zenith did not return calls for...

Fabian Núñez, the eighth and longest-serving Assembly speaker in the 13 years since the legendary Willie Brown was forced to vacate the position in 1995, is being forced out himself by a legislative term limit law he tried, and failed, to persuade voters to change. None of Núñez's seven predecessors had more than a momentary impact; indeed, a few of them were there scarcely long enough to change the I-love-me plaques in the speaker's ornate office. But Núñez, elected as a first-termer in the hope that he could bring some stability and accomplishment to the Assembly, does have a record...

SACRAMENTO -- Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, who drew heavy criticism last fall for using campaign funds for world travel and luxury purchases, continued to spend thousands of dollars on airfare and gifts in the last six months, according to financial reports made public Thursday. The reports show the Los Angeles Democrat spent $20,916 on Delta Airlines, $2,701 at Falconhead boot company, $579 for a "meeting" at a wine bar, and $4,074 at Nordstrom, Macy's and Williams-Sonoma stores between July 1 and the end of December. In an Oct. 5 article, The Times reported that Nuñez had spent tens of thousands...

San Diego - -- Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez fidgeted with his BlackBerry as he sat in a leather seat in the back of a black Buick Park Avenue and zoomed south on Interstate 5. He checked voice mail, read e-mail and barked his ideas for fixing California's ailing health care system to his staff in Sacramento. --snip-- He was a novice politician who had just won his first election. He also was a divorcé struggling to reconcile with his ex-wife, who had been his college sweetheart. And he was recovering from personal bankruptcy. Five years later, he is living a...