Fabian Nunez Riles Crime Victims

Not bothering to check whether Santos could be helped, Nuñez and his crew fled, driving 500 miles north back to Sacramento. As Christine Pelisek reported for the Weekly on April 23, 2010, when Esteban Nuñez learned what they had done, he did not skip a beat —he finished packing for a previously planned move back into his parents' million-dollar home and schemed to destroy the evidence. Then Jett, Garcia and Nuñez drove to the Sacramento River, burned their bloodstained clothes and tossed their knives into the current.

Thomas — the only one of the four who was unarmed the night Santos was murdered — later told police that Nuñez said he would "take the rap," and that "hopefully his dad would take care of it."

Throughout the preliminary stages of the criminal case, no testimony or evidence emerged that Nuñez expressed remorse in the hours and days after taking Santos' life.

In early December 2008, Nuñez and his friends were charged with one count of murder and three counts of assault with a deadly weapon. Before a bail hearing that same month, about 70 people involved in government and politics, including Villaraigosa, mailed letters to the court that vouched for Nuñez and his family.

It appeared the letters were successful when the judge reduced Nuñez's bail from $2 million to $1 million. State Assemblyman Kevin de León wrote that Esteban was "considerate, gentle and well-mannered." Villaraigosa called him "a young man of good and upright character."

The young black man who did not carry a weapon, Leshanor Thomas, a former homecoming king, became one symbol of the inequities in the case when his retired Army sergeant dad could not raise the reduced $1 million bail. Thomas spent five months in jail awaiting trial. Nuñez and Garcia were freed after eight days.

It soon became clear that Nuñez's good friend Ryan Jett was the one who had delivered the fatal blow to Santos and that Nuñez had drunkenly stabbed and injured two of Santos' friends. In order to avoid a possible life sentence, Nuñez accepted a plea bargain: He pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and two counts of assault. Under that deal, he received the maximum of 16 years.

"Nobody forced Fabian Nuñez's son to sign his name and make a plea deal," Fred Santos says. "I don't see how the politics that Mr. Nuñez is complaining about could have forced his son to plead guilty. [Fabian] Nuñez has inserted himself into the situation, saying this all has to do with who he is, but it has nothing to do with who he is and everything to do with the fact that his son was involved in a murder."

In the weeks since Fabian Nuñez made his comments at the Sacramento courthouse, Fred Santos and his wife say they have felt more alone than ever in their fight to overturn Schwarzenegger's commutation, forever grieving the loss of their son.

"You will never recover when your child dies, regardless of how they die," Santos says. "At night, my wife and I and our daughter sit alone in our home, thinking, 'Is this worth all the heartache to keep fighting?' But then we think, 'If we don't, who will seek justice for our son?' We're no heroes, we're doing this mostly for our son and for ourselves."

All crime victims in California, however, may soon benefit from the Santos' pain.

A bill is sailing through the state Legislature, co-sponsored by Republican Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher and Democratic Assemblyman Marty Block, both representing districts near San Diego, which would require an applicant for a prison-sentence commutation to notify the district attorney 10 days before the governor acts. The district attorney would be required to notify victims or their family, giving them the chance to submit a written statement to the governor and have that statement considered.

So far, the bill has passed through the Assembly and several subcommittees in the Senate. When the Legislature reconvenes in August, the bill will go to a Senate floor vote and, if approved, to Gov. Brown's desk.

"The bill has moved through the legislative process without any major hurdles," says Block's spokesman, Mike Naple, "and there hasn't been any opposition holding it up. All signs are looking good."

But Fred Santos says Marsy's Law already requires that victims be notified of a commutation, so the legislation is redundant and unnecessary. Schwarzenegger, he says, owed him a call before he slipped the commutation through in his final hours as governor.

"It's basic human decency," Santos says. "Someone's loved one has been murdered and now you're going to reduce the sentence — shouldn't someone ask how the victim's family feels about this? Shouldn't they at least ask that question? That has to be better than saying, 'To hell with the victim, let's give the murderer a break.' The legislation is just so there's no excuses and eliminates the gray area people may think exists."

The next court hearing in the Santoses' lawsuit is scheduled for August. And Santos fully expects Nuñez to keep flapping his gums.

"I would be shocked if he didn't do it again," Santos says.

Reach the writer at cvogel@laweekly.com.