A “desperate and obsessive” Larry Millete made repeated requests for a “spell-caster” to prevent his wife from leaving him, and the demands became so numerous and persistent that the man eventually blocked Millete from contacting him, he testified Wednesday.
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Millete is on trial accused of murder in the death of May “Maya” Millete, his wife of 20 years, who hasn’t been seen since Jan. 7, 2021. Police have said there is no evidence of May leaving the family’s Chula Vista home after the afternoon of Jan. 7, nor any evidence to suggest she was alive after that date.
Frank Peavey testified Wednesday that in the fall of 2020, he began receiving requests over the Fiverr platform from Larry Millete for spells that would make his wife “fall madly in love” with him again.
Peavey said he continued communications with Larry over the next few months under the pseudonym he used for his business, “Tess Joy,” and fielded requests for spells that would convince May to remain with Larry.
Prosecutors have argued that Larry Millete solicited the services of various purported magic practitioners, including Peavey, and that his requests veered over time from making May love him and give up her plans for divorce to harming her physically and psychologically so she would be rendered dependent upon him.
Defense attorneys argued in their opening statements in the trial that what prosecutors were characterizing as violent requests to spell-casters were simply indications that Larry was “absolutely desperate to do whatever he can to keep the love of his life.”
Peavey testified that the volume of messages he received from Larry far exceeded that of his typical clients and that Larry was often impatient when he didn’t get the desired results.
“He wanted instant gratification with every message that he sent,” Peavey testified.
Peavey said Larry appeared to grow “manic and desperate” over time, to the point where Peavey said he blocked him because, “I’d had enough” and “hoped to wash my hands of the situation.”
On Tuesday, District Attorney’s Office Investigator James Rhoades testified about some of the requests Larry sent to Peavey and other spell-casters, which Rhoades said not only sought to make May love him, but also make her “obey him and make her subservient to him.”
Other requests sought to “break her will,” as well as “banish” aspects of May’s life that did not directly concern Larry or her immediate family, such as her job and her friends, Rhoades testified.
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Prosecutors argue that those spell requests illustrated Larry’s alleged controlling behavior and possessiveness over his wife.
Earlier this week, Derek Sopp, May’s immediate supervisor at Southwest Regional Maintenance Center, testified that May told him Larry insisted that she keep her cellphone’s location on at all times, that he had the passwords to her social media accounts so he could see who she was speaking with, and that he had full control of their finances.
Wednesday afternoon’s proceedings included testimony from two of May’s friends, who said May expressed her frustrations with them over Larry’s behavior.
Maria Mariscal, who worked with May at the maintenance center, recalled a get-together at which May appeared angry because Larry had hidden one of their daughter’s cellphones in May’s car in order to track her whereabouts.
Kristeen Timmers, another friend and former co-worker of May’s, testified that May complained about her lack of control over the family’s finances, as Larry had allegedly taken a significant portion of their savings and invested it in cryptocurrency.
Timmers said May also told her friends that Larry had been accessing her social media accounts through her phone, blocking people and erasing conversations from her profiles.
Timmers testified about a March 2020 Facebook Messenger conversation she had with May, in which May was discussing her unhappiness.
At one point during the chat, Larry interjected with a message of his own, in which he thanked Timmers for being a good friend to his wife.
“I know I haven’t been the best husband but I’m trying. Please help us keep our family together rather than apart,” he wrote.
After that, Timmers said she and May’s circle of friends kept their social media chats restricted to “surface” conversations, rather than delving into personal issues.
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