Attorney heading to trial again in disputed SoMa stabbing death

A legal saga over a drunken confrontation that turned into a fatal stabbing outside a San Francisco bar resumed Wednesday when a tenants’ rights attorney appeared in court to face a murder charge that had been dismissed by a judge six months earlier.

City prosecutors disagreed with the judge’s decision after a preliminary hearing to toss the charges against 33-year-old Carlos Argueta — and with the assertion that he killed a man on Sixth Street in self-defense — so they took the case to a grand jury, which indicted him in mid-May.

The principle of double jeopardy does not apply to preliminary hearings, so on Wednesday, Argueta stood quietly in San Francisco Superior Court in a jail-issued orange jumpsuit, where he did not enter a plea in connection with the death of 61-year-old James Thomas on the night of Sept. 3, 2015.

“We strongly disagreed with the judge’s ruling, which is why we exercised our authority to take the case to a grand jury,” said Max Szabo, a spokesman for the district attorney. “By indicting the defendant, at least 12 members of the grand jury (out of 13) agreed with our assessment of the facts and the law, and unless this case is settled out of court, a jury will ultimately decide the merits of the charges.”

Outside court, Argueta’s family and his attorney said they were dismayed that he was back in a San Francisco courtroom, long after believing the case was behind him.

“I think the whole thing is unfair,” said his cousin, Mario Martinez, 46. “He was released last time because there wasn’t enough evidence. To me, that indicates to me that he is innocent. For them to come back and do the same thing again with the same evidence, it makes no sense at all. You’re basically just ruining his life.”

Argueta, who was a staff attorney for Eviction Defense Collaborative, is accused of fatally stabbing Thomas at about 10 p.m. outside a bar on a busy and gritty block of Sixth Street south of Market Street. He had been celebrating the end of the internship of a young colleague, Pascal Krummenacher, and both of the men were intoxicated.

Prosecutors said Argueta stabbed Thomas without good cause, but defense attorneys said Argueta acted in self-defense in an altercation with four men who carried a cane, a bat and a skateboard as weapons. An attorney for Krummenacher — who was originally charged but was cleared — said surveillance video suggested the dispute was over whether Argueta took a messenger bag from one of the men.

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In November, Judge Kay Tsenin said the evidence in the case supported the self-defense claim and dismissed the cases. At preliminary hearings, prosecutors must show there is probable cause to suspect a defendant committed a crime — a lower burden than at trial, when jurors must find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Deputy Public Defender Peter Santina, who is representing Argueta, said Wednesday that he was confident his client would be acquitted. Argueta’s friends and relatives raised bail money when he was first charged, but now face a new bond of $2 million.

Argueta has spent the past six months trying to move on from the case, his family said, moving back to Southern California. Santina said authorities arrested him at his job, dragging him out of the bathroom and marching him out in front of his new co-workers. He is set to return to court Thursday.

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo