Ex-Assembly Speaker's Son To Be Released After 7 Years Of Manslaughter Sentence

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A man convicted of manslaughter who is the son of a former California Assembly speaker is about to be set free from prison.

The family of Luis Santos says the man convicted of killing the college student will be walking free soon, thanks to former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He commuted Esteban Nunez's sentence.

It was October of 2008 when Nunez, son of former Assembly speaker Fabian Nunez, ran into Santos. He and another defendant were convicted of stabbing the 22-year-old to death and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Fred and Kathy Santos thought they might be on the road to justice in their son's murder. They were wrong.

"We are serving a life sentence and our son's murderer is not, because we have to live with this for the rest of our lives with our son's loss," Fred Santos said.

In one of his last political moves before leaving office, Schwarzenegger commuted Esteban Nunez's sentence. His father, Fabian Nunez, was a powerful political ally to Schwarzenegger.

The sentence was reduced from 16 years to just seven years, calling it "unfair" considering Esteban Nunez had no prior criminal record.

"[My son] was cheated out of life by a group of thugs and he was cheated out of justice due to some well connected killers," Kathy Santos said.

The Santos family spoke at the a victims' rights rally outside the state Capitol on Thursday.

"It's been very hard," she said. "This is the year he would be turning 30 years old. This year his friends are getting married and having children."

His family was notified that Nunez would be released soon from prison.

"Again, there's nothing we can do about the release of our friends' murderer--in our case, we have seen first hand the difference between the haves and the have-nots," Fred Santos said.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says Nunez will be released within the next week.