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ISSUES WITH JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL
Aired July 13, 2011 - 19:00:00 ET
VELEZ-MITCHELL:
::snipping2::
It`s been a year Arnold Schwarzenegger would love to forget. And it`s only delighted (ph) people. After
now Schwarzenegger is being sued by the family of a slain college student.
22-year-old Luis Santos was stabbed to death near a San Diego frat house back in 2008. Esteban Nunez pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 16 years, but the day before Arnold Schwarzenegger left office, he cut that guy`s sentence in half. Why? Perhaps it has something to do with Arnold`s good buddy who just happens to be the killer`s father.
Here is Arnold with former California assembly speaker Fabian Nunez. Watch as Arnold is confronted over this coincidence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did you wait until the last minute, sir, before you left office? Was it a favor for Fabian Nunez, Governor?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, Governor. How are you?
SCHWARZENEGGER: Don`t ask me the same question, ok, because otherwise you`re boring the hell out of me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I mean I think a lot of people want to know. Why did you reduce the sentence for Esteban Nunez?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL:L Yes, that noise? That`s Arnold Schwarzenegger going -- the slain man`s parents are extremely upset with this commutation. And they are my exclusive guests tonight.
But first TMZ`s Mike Walters has the latest drama surrounding Arnold`s scandalous year. Mike, tell us about the divorce, the new house, what`s going on?
WALTERS: Well, Jane, Arnold and Maria are just now dividing up the huge estate that they both earned in their 25-year marriage, over $400 million. And the first thing that happened was Arnold is going to stay in the home that they shared. Maria, though, has just purchased a $10 million home three miles away from the family home because remember, they have the children and they want to be able to parent together.
I`m told actually it`s been a really easy process, probably because Arnold is just saying fine, you can have it, you can have it, you can have it. He doesn`t want to challenge her right now and take this to court. They`re doing it privately. And they`re talking about how to split this massive estate, like I said, really easy process so far.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But I hear it`s going to be -- isn`t she in line to get something like -- I had heard reports, I have no idea, tell me I`m wrong, $200 million?
WALTERS: Yes. You know, the reality is they`ve been together so long and when they came into the marriage, the estate was so small that it`s community property. She will get 50 percent of that $400 million. So in the end after it`s all said and done, she`ll get around $200 million.
But you know what, she wants this house and she wants it now. And they`re actually building it. It`s beautiful here in Brentwood. She`s already purchased that. She`s just started splitting the estate with him. But in the end they`ll split it in half, $200 million and $200 million.
But fun fact, Arnold has been hanging out with his children. We just got pictures in of him with his son Patrick, taking him on his first day on his new job. He works for Rick Caruso, a guy who own the (INAUDIBLE) of a big mall here in Los Angeles.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right.
WALTERS: So, you know, he is doing the dad thing and taking his son to his first day on the job. So you`ve got to give him credit for that.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: He can spend time with his son but there`s somebody who can`t spend time with his son and these are my very special guests tonight. The parents of Luis Santos who was killed, Kathy and Fred Santos; they have filed a lawsuit against Arnold Schwarzenegger because of a commutation of a man who was involved in the death of their son.
I want to start with Fred; first of all, what`s your reaction, sir, to this commutation that slashes approximately in half the sentence of a man who was involved in the death of your son?
FRED SANTOS, FATHER OF SLAIN STUDENT: Well, we were totally shocked. We were blind-sided. We had no idea that it even has taken place. We found out about the commutation when a reporter called us at home and asked us for our reaction to what the governor has done. And we have no idea what the governor has done that pertained to my family.
So we told the reporter we would call them back and we went online to find out what exactly did Arnold Schwarzenegger do. That`s when we found out that he had reduced the sentence of our son`s murderer.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, now, the person who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in your son`s case, and your son was a college student. He had a whole life ahead of him. And apparently there was this fight, right? And he was stabbed. And the person who pleaded guilty to manslaughter, my understanding is that he didn`t actually do the stabbing but he was involved and he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with the death of your son. And --
KATHY SANTOS, MOTHER OF SLAIN STUDENT: Actually, it was --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: He is the son of Fabian Nunez, who used to be the California assembly speaker and is a buddy of Arnold Schwarzenegger. So let`s listen to what this former California assembly speaker, the father of the guy who you`re looking at here, what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FABIAN NUNEZ, SON PLEADED GUILTY TO MANSLAUGHTER: This case has been politicized from the beginning and that our hope is that in a different court setting, that folks will see the facts for what they are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. So I want to bring in the attorney for the parents, Nina Salarno Ashford, you`re the attorney for the Santos family. What is your reaction? And think about this because we`re going to get your response on the other side of the break, to Arnold Schwarzenegger saying -- well, he told this to Newsweek.
"Hello, of course you help a friend. I mean, of course, I feel good about the decision. I don`t apologize for it. I understand the parents` anger. I would probably feel the same way. My office definitely made a mistake by not notifying the parents."
The reaction on the other side.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did you wait until the last minute, sir, before you left office? Was it a favor for Fabian Nunez, Governor?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, Governor. How are you?
SCHWARZENEGGER: Don`t ask me the same question, ok, because otherwise you`re boring the hell out of me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I mean I think a lot of people want to know. Why did you reduce the sentence for Esteban Nunez?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Now it all goes back to 2008. A young man, Luis Santos, who was a college student, is in a fight and he dies tragically and Esteban Nunez, who is the son of the former -- what is it -- a bigwig, a California bigwig, pleads guilty to voluntary manslaughter. He apparently didn`t actually do the stabbing. But he was there and he was involved. And now because his dad is this big time politician -- or was, anyway, former state assemblyman -- Arnold Schwarzenegger commutes his sentence on the way out of office. And you see them. There they are together.
So I want to go to Nina Salarno Ashford, you`re the attorney for the Santos family. Arnold Schwarzenegger is totally unapologetic over this commutation. What do you make of it?
NINA SALARNO ASHFORD, ATTORNEY FOR SANTOS FAMILY: I find his actions just reprehensible (ph). And Jane, I need to correct you on one thing. It was never determined who delivered the fatal blow. Governor Schwarzenegger has lied to the people of California. Two men had knives that night, Esteban Nunez having one. Both stabbed Luis Santos. It was never deliver determined who delivered the fatal blow.
So when he said that part of his commutation that he was not the actual killer, that was actually a lie, which goes along with his unconscionable action of doing this. He violated the California law.
In 2008, 6.2 million voters in California decided victims had enforceable rights in our system and had the right to be heard. The Santos family had the right not only to notice of the commutation, to be heard by the governor, to have their safety considered and to be a part of the process.
The former governor knew that. He chose to violate the law. He`s chosen to lie as to why he did it and he`s chosen to do it as a political favor. His actions and the fact that he has no remorse for his actions -- just, it`s unfathomable the way he`s handled this. And we`ve had to turn to the courts --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ok. And the convict we`re talking about is the son of former assembly speaker, Fabian Nunez who was tight with Arnold Schwarzenegger when Arnold was the governor and Arnold Schwarzenegger admits that.
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Go ahead.
ASHFORD: Not only was he tight with him. Fabian Nunez`s business partner was one of the political advisers to the former governor. That`s how tight they are. So it goes even deeper than the politics.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So justice is supposed to be blind, but it`s not. I want to go to Kathy Santos. What was your reaction, Kathy, when you found out that this happened and you were not even informed, you and your husband were not even informed, as required by law?
K. SANTOS: Well, we were very angry. And this was not a fight, this was an ambush. Our son and his friends were attacked violently and viciously by people with knives and our son`s group was not armed. So he was a victim already, killed in such a violent action and now to be disrespected by the governor, by undoing the work of the courts is just -- it`s unbelievable that he would do this.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Final thoughts in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Kathy Santos, what would you say to Arnold Schwarzenegger about his commuting the sentence of a man involved in your son`s violent death?
K. SANTOS: I want to ask him why he was such a coward and did this in such a quiet way during the last hour of his office. Why didn`t he have the decency to contact the district attorney or to let us know with a heads up? Why was this done on the down low, quietly and secretively? We`d like to know the answer to that. We`d also like to overturn this commutation.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So you would like to see this man, who was involved in the death of your son, the violent death, serve his entire sentence. And I would certainly agree that justice should be blind and it should not be determined based on who Arnold Schwarzenegger is buddies with.
That`s all the time we have now.
END
