Monterey County District Attorney's Office
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Speakers Bureau The Speakers Bureau is a community outreach and education program that matches qualified members of the District Attorney’s staff with community groups and organizations wishing to learn more about various aspects of the criminal justice system. The program is free and available to the public. Entities such as neighborhood organizations, educational institutions, faith-based groups, and clubs or organizations should feel free to request a speaker for meeting or gathering. |
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| Multi-Cultural Community Council | |||
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Community Events
25th Annual Victims' Dedication Ceremony
Annual Police Memorial National Night Out - To be announced Public Safety Night - To be announced |
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The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office will serve as a strong voice for the community on important public safety issues. With a focus on legislative issues, the government relations team will take a proactive role in shaping laws that impact public safety. |
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Legislative Issues Assembly Bill 109 Realignment, which shifted thousands of state prison inmates to local jurisdictions. Proposition 47, which dramatically reduced the crime and consequences for drug users and thieves. Proposition 57, which eliminated prosecutors’ ability to directly send a juvenile accused of a serious or violent offense to adult court and created a new criteria for early release of prisoners from state prison. |
Bills Supported |
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Programs and Services A Victim Assistance Advocate will speak with you and determine how we can assist you. Program services are provided free of charge and there is no legal citizenship requirement to receive assistance. |
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Facility Dogs
Family Justice Center
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Upon the request of the jurisdictional law enforcement agency the
Monterey County District Attorney’s Office will investigate and
independently review an officer-involved shooting incident resulting
in injury or death, as well as all other uses of force resulting in
the death of individuals while in custody or under the control of
law enforcement officers. This review addresses whether the
officers involved committed any violation of criminal law. It
does not consider issues of civil liability, police tactics, or
department policies and procedures.
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Our Mission |
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Policies
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Frequently Asked Questions |
| Forms | Brochures | Career Opportunities Public Records Act Requests | Local Agencies/Resources |
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The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office Bureau of
Investigation consists of 32 full time employees and multiple
volunteer interns. The Bureau of Investigation is managed by
Chief Investigator Ryan McGuirk who reports directly to District
Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni and has overall responsibility for
Bureau operations and resource allocation. Chief McGuirk manages the
Bureau of Investigation with the assistance of two (2) District
Attorney Captains. In addition to these command staff, the
Bureau of Investigation has twenty-four (24) Investigators, six (6)
Investigative Aides and several volunteer investigative interns.
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| Collaborative Courts | Criminal Prosecutions | Specialty Units | Fraud |
|
Speakers Bureau The Speakers Bureau is a community outreach and education program that matches qualified members of the District Attorney’s staff with community groups and organizations wishing to learn more about various aspects of the criminal justice system. The program is free and available to the public. Entities such as neighborhood organizations, educational institutions, faith-based groups, and clubs or organizations should feel free to request a speaker for meeting or gathering. |
|||
| Suggested Topics | |||
|
|
|
|
| Speaker Request Form | |||
| Multi-Cultural Community Council | |||
|
Programs and Services A Victim Assistance Advocate will speak with you and determine how we can assist you. Program services are provided free of charge and there is no legal citizenship requirement to receive assistance. |
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|
|
|
Facility Dogs |
|
Upon the request of the jurisdictional law enforcement
agency the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office will
investigate and independently review an officer-involved
shooting incident resulting in injury or death, as well as
all other uses of force resulting in the death of
individuals while in custody or under the control of law
enforcement officers. This review addresses whether
the officers involved committed any violation of criminal
law. It does not consider issues of civil liability,
police tactics, or department policies and procedures.
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| Press Releases |
| Press Release Archives |
| Social Media Links |
| Press Conference Videos |
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Our Mission |
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Policies | Frequently Asked Questions |
| Forms | Brochures | Career Opportunities Public Records Act Requests | Local Agencies/Resources |
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The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office Bureau of
Investigation consists of 32 full time employees and
multiple volunteer interns. The Bureau of
Investigation is managed by Chief Investigator Ryan McGuirk
who reports directly to District Attorney Jeannine M.
Pacioni and has overall responsibility for Bureau operations
and resource allocation. Chief McGuirk manages the Bureau of
Investigation with the assistance of two (2) District
Attorney Captains. In addition to these command staff,
the Bureau of Investigation has twenty-four (24)
Investigators, six (6) Investigative Aides and several
volunteer investigative interns.
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Meet the District Attorney
Ms. Pacioni received her Bachelor of Science degree from Northern Arizona University. After receiving her Juris Doctorate Degree from the University of San Diego, School of Law in 1990, she became licensed to practice law in the states of California and Arizona. In 1990, she worked as a Deputy District Attorney for the Kern County District Attorney’s Office and in 1992 she joined the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office.
In 2001, she left to raise her family, returning after an 8-year sabbatical during which time she also served as a Grand Juror of the Monterey County Civil Grand Jury, and as President of the Junior League of Monterey County. In 2012, she joined the National Charity League of Monterey Bay, of which she has served as a member of their Board of Directors. Ms. Pacioni was formerly a Board Member of the Monterey Rape Crisis Center, and is currently a member of the Monterey County Children’s Council and the Child Abuse Prevention Council. She is also a member of the Monterey County Bar Association and the California District Attorneys Association and the Monterey County Chief Law Enforcement Officers Association.
Ms. Pacioni has devoted her entire legal career to the pursuit of justice while handling virtually every type of criminal case prosecuted in Monterey County. For 20 years as a prosecutor, she has tenaciously represented victims of crime in numerous high-profile cases involving murder, gang crimes, vehicular manslaughter, assault, robbery, child molestation, adult sexual assault, and elder abuse. On November 21, 2019, Ms. Pacioni was recognized by the Monterey County Women's Lawyers Association as the 2019 recipient of the Lady Justice Lifetime Achievement Award for Legal Advocacy and Community Service.
In 2018, she was elected and became the first female District Attorney in Monterey County.
JOB OPPORTUNITIES
Press Releases
FORMER SOLEDAD RESIDENT SENTENCED TO 25 YEARS TO LIFE FOR KILLING EX-GIRLFRIEND IN 2010
Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni announced today that on March 12, 2026, the Honorable Jennifer O’Keefe sentenced Noel Aguilera Ledesma to 25 years to life in prison for the 2010 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Yvette Martinez. A jury convicted Ledesma, formerly of Soledad and Yuma, Ariz., of first-degree murder in February 2026.
In early 2010, Martinez and Ledesma dated, but they subsequently broke up. Despite the breakup, they remained connected to each other. For months, Ledesma attempted to persuade Martinez to get back together with him. However, in mid-September, Martinez began dating another person.
On October 9, 2010, Martinez went out with friends and her then-boyfriend. She went out drinking in Salinas and then went to a corn maze with her boyfriend. She saw a different friend at a Salinas restaurant before heading home. Throughout the night, Ledesma was calling and texting Martinez’s cell phone, but she largely ignored his texts and calls. As the night progressed, Ledesma became angrier that Martinez was not responding to him. He told her that his friends were ridiculing him and laughing at him.
A little after midnight on October 10, 2010, Ledesma went to Martinez’s home in Greenfield and waited there for hours. At 3:11 a.m., Martinez arrived back at her home but did not make it inside. She was never seen alive again.
That morning, Martinez’s phone was disconnected from her cellular network for the whole day, the only time in the prior six months her phone was ever meaningfully disconnected from the network. For a brief period of time in the afternoon, Martinez’s phone reconnected to her network, and her phone sent a few messages to friends that they suspected were not actually from Martinez. Martinez’s friends and family tried calling her phone all day, but her phone would never answer, despite the fact she was someone who was extremely responsive to cell phone contact.
At 8:00 p.m., Martinez’s vehicle was found burning on the side of Highway 198, a few miles from Priest Valley Road, an extremely rural patch of highway. Martinez’s body was found in the trunk of her own car. Someone had attempted to push her vehicle down a canyon, but the vehicle got stuck on a berm. A later autopsy determined that Martinez had died of strangulation. Her body was so badly burned that she had to be identified by her dental records.
In 2010, Monterey County Sheriff’s Office detectives suspected Ledesma was the killer due to suspicious behavior he exhibited in the days following her death, his history of domestic violence against another partner, and the content of his text messages with Martinez that night. However, Ledesma claimed he was home the day she disappeared and was at a family party when the car fire was set. One of Ledesma’s brothers vouched for his alibi. At the time, investigators were unable to disprove the alibi.
In July 2020, District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni created the District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Task Force, which represents the largest and most comprehensive county-wide effort to investigate, solve and prosecute cold-case homicides in Monterey County. The Cold Case Task Force has been actively collaborating with the Sheriff’s Office to work on multiple unsolved homicide cases, including Martinez’s case.
In January 2022, the District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Task Force received a $535,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance. The grant, titled “FY 2021 Prosecuting Cold Cases Using DNA,” provides funding to support forensic testing and investigative activities in the prosecution of cold cases where DNA from a suspect has been identified. Funding from the U.S. Department of Justice grant enabled the Cold Case Task Force to seek justice in this case.
In 2024, using grant funding, the Task Force hired Jason Riechers of Hawks Consulting to re-examine the cell phone data. Mr. Riechers was able to process the 2010 cellular data and provide extremely powerful visual evidence that demonstrated Ledesma’s alibi was false. Mr. Riechers’s analysis showed that Ledesma was at or near Martinez’s home in Greenfield for hours before she arrived home. It showed Ledesma’s phone was in the same part of Salinas as Martinez’s cell phone when her phone was briefly turned on to send messages to friends pretending to be her. The data also showed that Ledesma was not at the family party at the time Martinez’s vehicle was found burning.
Seven members of Martinez’s family provided victim impact statements at sentencing about how Martinez’s murder affected them. Over 40 people attended the sentencing to support Martinez’s family. They were assisted by Victim Assistance Advocate Mayra Sandoval.
The original homicide investigation was primarily investigated by former Detective Bret Speirs from the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, with CAL FIRE Battalion Chief Richard Lopez overseeing the arson investigation. The lead investigators since 2024 were District Attorney Investigators Oliver Minnig, Justin Bell, and Bill Clark.
Since the creation of the Cold Case Task Force, seven defendants have been convicted of cold-case murders at jury trial, and three defendants have pleaded guilty to cold-case murders. Three other homicides were closed due to the death or mental incompetency of the identified suspect. Ten previously unidentified decedents have also been identified through DNA testing.
Contact Us
Main Office
142 W. Alisal Street, Suite A, Salinas, California 93901
Monterey Office
1200 Aguajito Rd. Room 301, Monterey, California 93940
King City Office
250 Franciscan Way, King City, California 93960
Phone: (831) 755-5070
Fax: (831) 755-5068
Email: publicinformation@co.monterey.ca.us