SAN DIEGO -- The son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and a friend accused in the fatal stabbing of a 22-year-old Mesa College student during a fight near San Diego State University were freed Wednesday after posting $1 million bail each.

Esteban Nunez and Rafael Garcia, both 19, and Leshanor Thomas, also 19, and Ryan Jett, 22, are charged with murder and other crimes in the Oct. 4 killing of Luis Santos.

Thomas and Jett remain in jail.

The defendants are due back in court Jan. 27 for a status conference. A preliminary hearing is set for March 18.

On Tuesday, Judge David Szumowski halved the $2 million bail for the defendants, saying the alleged crimes were serious but the original bail was too high.

Szumowski said the defendants could go to Sacramento to stay with their families if they were able to make bail.

At last week's arraignments, Deputy District Attorney Jill DiCarlo said the youths traveled from Sacramento to San Diego and got mad when they were denied entry to a fraternity party near the SDSU campus.

The prosecutor said five people in the victim's group were coming from a different party when they encountered the defendants.

DiCarlo alleged the defendants challenged the victims, and Santos and a friend tried to run away, but were attacked anyway as the groups got back together.

Santos was stabbed in the heart and bled to death.

Another man was stabbed in the back and stomach, and a third was stabbed in the shoulder. A fourth person was punched in the eye and underwent plastic surgery, according to DiCarlo. A fifth person was uninjured.

No one in the victim's group was armed, DiCarlo said.

Attorney Brad Patton, representing Nunez, said the defendants acted in self-defense. Patton said Jett was stabbed in a leg, so someone must have had a weapon.

Garcia's attorney, Paul Pfingst, said his client ran away when the fight broke out and wasn't there when Santos was stabbed. Rafael Garcia is the son of an administrative law judge in Sacramento.