June 02--A Northern California appeals court ruled Tuesday that Arnold Schwarzenegger was within his rights as governor in 2010 when he reduced the prison sentence for Esteban Nunez, the son of former Assembly speaker Fabian Nunez.
Nunez pleaded guilty in May 2010 to voluntary manslaughter and assault in the Oct. 4, 2008 death of Luis Santos, 21, a student at San Diego Mesa College. Three co-defendants also pleaded guilty.
Schwarzenegger reduced the sentence in an executive order in late December 2010 but didn't announce it until hours before he left office a few days later.
A San Diego Superior Corut upheld the move despite a lawsuit from the victim's family. Tuesday's ruling upheld the lower court's decision.
After a night of heavy drinking, Nunez and the three others attacked Santos because they had been rejected from attending a fraternity party, according to documents.
Nunez later bragged to his friends that his father would use his influence to keep them from facing charges, according to documents.
The elder Nunez was a prominent Democrat from Los Angeles.
At the time, he told reporters his son had been the target for prosecution from the beginning due to politics.
But Fred Santos, the victim's father, said Nunez and Schwarzenegger injected politic into the murder case.
San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis filed a civil lawsuit in 2011 to overturn Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's last-minute move to reduce Nunez's sentence from 16 to seven years.
The lawsuit alleged that Schwarzenegger's decision, announced in his final hours in office, violated a "victim's rights" law meant to allow families of crime victims to express their views before sentencing.
Neither the Santos family nor prosecutors were alerted that Schwarzenegger was reviewing the Nunez sentence.
