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SACRAMENTO (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ― The 19-year-old son of former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and three friends have been arrested and charged with murder in the stabbing death of a college student from Concord after police said they sought revenge when they were turned away from a fraternity party.

"I'm not glad they arrested the suspects," said Fred Santos, father of murder victim 22-year-old Luis Santos. "They killed my son and nothing will ever bring my son back. It's a final act."

According to allegations in an arrest warrant affidavit, Esteban Nunez tried to burn evidence in a plastic bag on the banks of the Sacramento River the day of Santos' stabbing death.

John Murray, a friend, told investigators that he joined Nunez and another defendant, Ryan Jett, at the riverbed near Nunez's apartment, which is frequented by transients. Nunez held the bag, while Jett had the cup filled with gasoline, according to the affidavit.

"They had a hat and a shirt they burned and they had their knives in a bag," Murray is quoted saying. "I walked back to my car and said, 'You guys do what you have to do.'"

Murray, who has not been charged, said he did not see them burn the evidence or get rid of the knives.

Esteban Nunez and his three friends are charged with one count each of murder, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon and a misdemeanor count of vandalism for the Oct. 4 death. They face maximum sentences of life in prison if convicted of murder.

The men were being taken to San Diego on Wednesday, a day after they were arrested in Sacramento. They were scheduled to make an initial court appearance Thursday.

Police have not recovered the knives used to kill Luis Santos, a student at San Diego Mesa College, and injure three others in the driveway of San Diego State University's Peterson Gym, but the affidavit offers several witness accounts.

Santos died at the scene from a stab wound that "sliced through the bottom of his heart," according to the affidavit.

His father, Fred Santos, said that his only son was taking business courses at the community college and wanted to get a real estate license. Fred Santos said his son grew up in Concord and went to Bay Area schools, attending Clayton Valley High School and graduating from Olympic High School.

On the night of the stabbing, he said his son was with his roommate and friends, heading for another friend's place, when they were accosted.

"It's just a senseless act," Fred Santos said in an interview from his home in Concord. "They need to be punished. They wanted to be gangsters; they committed a major crime. They should be punished for a major crime."

The arrest is a blow to Fabian Nunez, 41, who was the longest-serving speaker in California's era of legislative term limits. The Los Angeles Democrat cultivated a close relationship with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that led to their agreement on a landmark law to greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in California.

Fabian Nunez released a statement saying he had faith in the justice system.

"This is a very difficult and painful experience for every family involved. Maria and I love our children very much," he said. "We are confident our son Esteban will be cleared of the charges he is facing."

Esteban Nunez's attorney, C. Bradley Patton, did not return telephone calls seeking comment. A spokesman for the San Diego County district attorney's office, Paul Levikow, did not know if the other three defendants Jett, 22, and Rafael Garcia and Leshanor Thomas, both 19 had hired attorneys.

No one answered the doors Wednesday at the Sacramento-area addresses listed in police documents for any of the men charged.

Nunez and his friends drove to San Diego to party, according to police and court documents. Investigators said they belong to a "close-knit group of friends who call themselves 'THC' aka 'The Hazard Crew,'" who brandish tattoos with symbols of hazardous materials and flash hand signs.

Sacramento law enforcement authorities were unaware of the group, which had not been linked to any criminal activity, according to the affidavit.

Nunez and his friends were irate that they were kicked out of a fraternity party near San Diego State University and fueled their anger over a bottle of Captain Morgan rum and two six-packs of beer at the apartment of Garcia's cousin, Briana Perez, according to court documents.

Perez quoted the men saying, "Let's go burn down their house" and "Let's show them how we do it in Sac-Town."

Thomas told investigators they were kicked out of the party after admitting they were not part of the Greek system, the affidavit said.

The four left Perez's apartment and encountered a group of five men leaving a fraternity party about 2 a.m. Two of the stabbing victims interviewed in the hospital told police they were challenged to a fight. Their assailants called them "punks" and other names.

"They were walking down the street, there was a verbal exchange. It escalated into a physical altercation and eventually into the stabbing," said San Diego Police Capt. Jim Collins.

Collins said there may be a "gang nexus" but declined to elaborate or discuss circumstances of the stabbing. He also declined to comment on the role each of the suspects is believed to have played in the attack.

Collins said the vandalism involved a construction trailer parked in the area. A neighbor told investigators that she saw four men walking away from a trailer with punctured tires a few minutes before the stabbings, according to the affidavit.

The complaint filed in San Diego County Superior Court said the defendants used a knife or multiple knives to stab the four men.

According to the affidavit, Thomas told investigators that one of Santos' friends pushed or punched Jett, then Thomas stepped in to defend him. Nunez then said, "Let's go. Let's go. Let's go."

Thomas said as he and his friends left, they heard one of the victims say, "I think I got stabbed." Esteban Nunez then said, "Yeah, I got one of them."

Thomas said the group went to a friend's home in San Diego after the confrontation. He saw one of the men cleaning the knives while Jett and Nunez washed clothes in the kitchen sink.

Thomas told investigators that Nunez assured him he would "take the rap" for whatever happened and that "hopefully his dad would take care of it and could get them off on self-defense."

Nunez, Garcia and Jett refused to speak with investigators, according to court documents.

The group left quickly for Sacramento, typically a seven- to eight-hour drive from San Diego.

Police said they traced the suspects to Sacramento almost immediately based on witness accounts. Detectives searched the Northern California homes of all four suspects about a week after the stabbing.

Jett's girlfriend, Ariel Noricks, told investigators she also joined the men on the banks of the Sacramento River on the day of the attack and said Nunez "joked they were going to burn some clothes," according to the affidavit. The group put gasoline in a 7-Eleven Slurpee cup.

Noricks told investigators she saw Nunez pull out a Target bag from the vehicle's trunk with a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt and that the group burned the items. She didn't see them dispose of the knives.

Police said Esteban Nunez and at least one of the other suspects are college students in the Sacramento area. Nunez listed himself as a business student at California State University, Los Angeles on his Facebook and MySpace pages. He posted photos of himself on Facebook with friends, including Ryan Jett, whom he labeled "Jett," and Rafael Garcia, whom he called "Rafa."

Most of the images were of Nunez posing at parties with friends. In one photograph, Nunez wore a black bandanna over his mouth with a friend doing the same while a girl held up a bottle of liquor.

On his message wall, one friend posted a note after Nunez was arrested: "hang in there bro."

A former amateur boxer, Fabian Nunez worked his way through the political ranks of the Los Angeles labor movement before being elected in 2002 to the Legislature.

In 2004, he was elected Assembly speaker, one of the most powerful political leadership positions in the state. Nunez said he has no immediate plans to run for a future office.

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