Petty with a prior?
I was watching "Better call Saul" series when I heard the expression "petty with a prior". There were two lawyers who were arguing about some person under arrest. One of the lawyers was trying to convince another in something and this another lawyer was constantly saying "petty with a prior". So what does it mean?

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I agree with Andrew, but it's not necessarily petty *theft*. It could be any petty crime, like selling marijuana or driving under the influence of alcohol/drugs/controlled substance.

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I can't tell too much from the context, but I'm going to guess that petty is short for petty theft, and prior is prior conviction. So they're talking about the guy's criminal record

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In terms of the American justice system, a prior conviction means that a person has been tried and found guilty in a court of law before, i.e. he has a criminal record on file that the authorities can look up and retrieve.