Schwarzenegger reduces sentence in San Diego slaying

By Lily Leung and David Ogul
Sunday, January 2, 2011 at 5:51 p.m.

SAN DIEGO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday commuted the sentence of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez’s son, who was convicted in the slaying of a Mesa College student near San Diego State University in 2008.

Schwarzenegger’s move, one of his last as governor, reduces Esteban Nunez’s sentence from 16 years to seven years in prison. He called the original terms "excessive" in his commutation of sentence, dated Dec. 31. (Read the entire document here.)

The commutation comes two months after a San Diego Superior Court judge in October had rejected Esteban Nunez’s attempts at shortening the sentence.

Esteban Núñez, 21, of Sacramento pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon in the Oct. 4, 2008, stabbing that killed Luis Santos. A co-defendant, Ryan Jett, pleaded guilty to similar charges.

Both were sentenced in June to the maximum term of 16 years.

“I do not discount the gravity of the offense. But given Nunez’s limited role in Santos’s death, and considering that, unlike Jett, Nunez had no criminal record prior to this offense, I believe Nune’s sentence is excessive,â€