About Marc
Why a Former Prosecutor
Marc Pelta is a former Del Norte County deputy district attorney. He has practiced criminal defense privately since 2008.
This page describes what that work involved and what it means, in general terms, for a person facing a felony charge in the Bay Area. Nothing here predicts the outcome of any case.
Every case turns on its own facts, its own evidence and its own court. What follows is an account of a method, not a promise.
Charging decisions
A deputy district attorney reads the police report and decides what to file: which code sections, felony or misdemeanor, which enhancements, or nothing at all pending further investigation. That decision sets the shape of the case before a defendant ever appears in court.
A lawyer who has made charging decisions understands the questions a filing deputy asks: whether each element can be proven, whether the witnesses will hold up, and what the office's own filing standards require. In a pre-filing matter, those are the terms on which a defense presentation is received.
In California, a felony filed by complaint leads to a preliminary hearing where the magistrate decides whether there is sufficient cause, meaning probable cause, to hold the defendant for trial. Charges can be added, reduced or dismissed at several stages, driven by the prosecutor's reading of the file.
What this background does not mean
A former prosecutor holds no special standing with any court or any district attorney's office. The office reviewing a Bay Area case is the one in the county where it was filed, and it makes its own decisions under its own policies.
What carries over is a way of working: how a file is read, what a filing deputy needs to see, where an affidavit or a witness can fail, and how a case looks from the other table. That method is applied to each case on its own facts.
Criminal defense since 2008
The practice is concentrated in felony criminal defense across the nine Bay Area counties: San Francisco, Alameda, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Contra Costa, Marin, Solano, Napa and Sonoma.
Office: 1390 Market Street, Suite 200, San Francisco. Appointments by arrangement. Phone: 415-963-1152. Email: marc@peltalaw.com. Read more about Marc Pelta and felony defense.
This website is an advertisement for legal services. Marc Pelta, Pelta Law, San Francisco.
Common questions
Does a former prosecutor receive different treatment from a district attorney's office?
No. Each district attorney's office decides its cases on its own facts and policies, and a defense lawyer's background gives no standing with that office or any court. A former prosecutor brings familiarity with how filing and plea decisions are made. That informs preparation, not the rules.
Can evidence from a search warrant be challenged?
In general, yes. Penal Code section 1538.5 lets a defendant move to suppress evidence obtained through an unlawful search or seizure. It examines the warrant affidavit and how the search was conducted. Whether it succeeds depends on the facts and the court.
What is the difference between a jury trial and a bench trial in California?
In a jury trial, twelve jurors decide the facts and must agree unanimously to convict. In a bench trial, the judge decides the facts alone. In California a jury may be waived only with the consent of both parties, expressed in open court by the defendant and the defendant's counsel.
What is the difference between murder and manslaughter in California?
Murder under Penal Code section 187 is an unlawful killing with malice aforethought. Manslaughter under section 192 is a killing without malice, in voluntary, involuntary and vehicular forms. The line between them turns on the defendant's mental state and the circumstances, so the evidence on those points matters.
Pelta Law · San Francisco
A place to begin.
Contact Pelta Law to discuss your inquiry. A conflict check comes before any case detail is shared.