CHULA VISTA
Larry Millete killed his wife and the mother of his three children in January 2021, then spent the next day disposing of her body, which has never been found, because “divorce was not an option” for him, a prosecutor told jurors Monday during opening statements in one of the most high-profile and closely watched trials in Chula Vista history.
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Millete’s wife, May “Maya” Millete, had been unhappy for years and was on the verge of finally ending the couple’s 20-year marriage, but Larry Millete refused to let that happen, San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Christy Bowles told the jurors in a packed courtroom in Chula Vista Superior Court.
“Rather than let her leave, he killed her,” Bowles told the jury. She said that at the end of trial, two things would be clear to the jurors. “That May Millete is dead and that the defendant killed her.”
Defense attorney Colby Ryan countered by telling jurors that investigators had zeroed in on Millete as the main suspect without giving enough credence to other potential suspects, such as Maya’s co-worker with whom she had an affair, or that man’s pregnant wife, who was a county sheriff’s deputy.
“This case is an absolute tragedy,” Ryan told the jury. But he also said detectives conducted a shoddy investigation, and prosecutors ignored or did not seek evidence that could have shown there were other legitimate suspects.
Ryan said Bowles’ opening statement told a story that was “tragic, emotional (and) provocative,” but the only way it could be true is if his client “committed the perfect murder.”
The trial, which officially began last week with two full days of jury selection, is expected to last roughly three months. Prosecutors hope that at the end of that marathon, the jury will convict the 44-year-old Millete of first degree murder.
For years, Millete had maintained that his wife, 39 at the time of her disappearance, had taken off voluntarily from their home near Eastlake and was still alive. Ryan, who is defending Millete alongside Liann Sabatini, did not concede during opening statements that Maya is dead. He told the jury that the case raised many questions, but “we have no credible answers.”
Maya was last seen in a neighbor’s surveillance footage arriving home the afternoon of Jan. 7, 2021. Phone records showed she was messaging friends and searching the internet until later that evening, according to prosecutors. Bowles said her phone “terminated” — it was either shut down for good or destroyed — around 1:25 a.m. the next morning.
She has not been seen or heard from since.
California law allows prosecutors to charge a person with murder when the victim is presumed dead and no body has been recovered. The county District Attorney’s Office has prosecuted at least eight such cases dating back to 1997, according to an office spokesperson.
Since 2015, at least three no-body cases have gone to trial in San Diego County. Jurors convicted the defendants in two of those cases. In the other case — the presumed death of 2-year-old Jahi Turner — a jury deadlocked, and a judge later dismissed the case.
Maya Millete’s disappearance drew national headlines from the beginning. It was featured on Dr. Phil and 48 Hours and in People Magazine, among others. But the trial, unlike a 2023 preliminary hearing, will not be recorded or live streamed — Superior Court Judge Enrique Camarena ruled last month that cameras and other recording devices will not be allowed in the courtroom during trial because of their potential effect on the proceedings.
On Monday, family members of both Maya Millete and Larry Millete filled the courtroom, while reporters and attorneys not directly involved in the case filled a second courtroom to view a closed video feed of the proceedings. Some others hoping to observe the start of the trial were left out of both courtrooms.
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Much of what Bowles told the jury Monday as she previewed the evidence was information that prosecutors had presented during the 10-day preliminary hearing. At the end of that hearing, a judge ruled there was enough evidence to send Millete to trial.
But Bowles revealed at least one new piece of information Monday. She said that when investigators arrested Millete in October 2021 and searched his home again, they found a vial containing an unknown substance. Bowles said that at least some subsequent testing detected the same chemical that’s found in poison hemlock.
The prosecutor said that was significant because investigators had found a Google account belonging to Millete in which he searched the term hemlock and also searched for poisons that could kill quickly.
Ryan, the defense attorney, told the jury they should question the prosecution’s theory surrounding that vial. He said investigators served multiple search warrants at the home in the 10 months after Maya’s disappearance, and he questioned why it was only discovered when Millete was arrested.
He also said three of four tests conducted on the liquid from the vial showed no evidence of hemlock, and that the fourth could have been a false-positive based on a plant that grows near hemlock.
Ryan told the jury there were other issues with the investigation and the evidence. He said there was a gap in the neighbor’s surveillance footage during a “very important time period.” He also said there was a blind spot in the back part of the Millete’s home where someone could leave without being recorded on the neighbor’s camera. And he said there were credibility issues with three main investigators on the case and their testimony during the preliminary hearing.
Ryan also told the jury that investigators had never seriously investigated Maya’s lover, a man named James “Jamey” Laird. The defense attorney said Laird had acted suspiciously by deleting messages between him and Maya on multiple platforms.
“Every time Jamey Laird talked to police, he lied,” Ryan said. The defense attorney also suggested that Laird’s wife at the time, a sheriff’s deputy whom he has since divorced, had acted suspiciously by deleting messages and call logs from her phone.
But Bowles said both Jamey Laird and his ex-wife had an alibi. She went into labor and they went to the hospital the night of Jan. 7, the same day Maya disappeared. The wife gave birth Jan. 8, and the couple remained at the hospital for several days, Bowles told the jury.
Bowles also told jurors Maya did not disappear on her own accord. Maya had big plans for 2021, the prosecutor said. But above all, she “would not, could not, did not leave her children.”
The first witness in the case, expected to be called Tuesday morning, will be a receptionist at a law firm. She took a call from Maya the day she went missing. Maya was seeking an appointment with a lawyer to begin the legal process for a divorce.
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