CHULA VISTA
For more than five years, the story of Chula Vista mother May “Maya” Millete’s disappearance and her alleged murder, supposedly at the hands of her jilted husband, had been told by May’s family members and prosecutors — rarely, if ever, had Larry Millete’s version of the story been told.
Read more Amid backlash from hotels, San Diego pumps the brakes on new fees on businesses
That changed Wednesday during defense closing arguments in Larry Millete’s murder trial at the Chula Vista Superior Court. For the first time publicly, one of his attorneys recounted his version of events regarding the couple’s rocky final year of marriage and the reasons behind some of his suspicious actions around the time his wife went missing in January 2021.
A prosecutor gave her closing argument in the case Tuesday and then rebutted the defense argument early Wednesday afternoon. Around 3:30 p.m., following a seven-week trial with more than 60 witnesses, the 12 members of the jury finally began deliberating the case.
Millete, 44, is charged with first-degree murder, though the jurors have the option of convicting him on lesser murder or manslaughter charges.
He is accused of killing May, who was 39 when she was last seen or heard from on Jan. 7, 2021. Prosecutors allege that Millete likely killed his wife and the mother of his three children by poisoning her with hemlock on the same day that she called a divorce law firm and scheduled an appointment. Prosecutors also allege that Millete then disposed of May’s body, which has never been found.
The prosecution case is based on circumstantial evidence about the couple’s failing marriage, Millete’s alleged desire to harm his wife and his suspicious conduct after she went missing. Deputy District Attorney Christy Bowles went through a long list of that evidence during her rebuttal Wednesday, telling the jury it all pointed to Millete as the only person with the motive and opportunity to kill his wife.
“There are too many coincidences,” Bowles said. “He is either the unluckiest person in the world, or he is guilty of murder.”
But defense attorney Liann Sabatini, who dismissed the poison theory as “silly,” argued that Bowles had failed to prove the murder charge beyond a reasonable doubt. She painted a different picture of Millete for jurors during her closing argument.
Rather than being the abusive, manipulative and ultimately homicidal husband that prosecutors alleged, Sabatini described Millete as a tragic figure who was being emotionally and psychologically abused and gaslit by his cheating wife.
“He’s an oversharing, vulnerable, kind of tragic guy, at least in 2020,” Sabatini told jurors. She said May had embarrassed Millete by carrying on an affair for a year while continuously lying about it. “His dignity was stripped from him, his pride taken. This man was broken down.”
But, Sabatini argued, that didn’t make him a murderer. Instead, she told the jury, his actions showed that he loved and had compassion for his wife. She argued that Millete didn’t act out violently when he caught May with her lover, and that he took her to a doctor when she had medical complications after aborting an extramarital pregnancy.
Read more Sweetwater High School, Chula Vista sign lease bringing virtual academy to Millenia Library
Prosecutors have alleged that Millete physically abused May, pointing to her past journal entries. Sabatini told the jury there was no evidence, such as May disclosing it to friends or her therapist.
“We don’t have any actual evidence of prior domestic violence,” Sabatini said. “That is all talk.”
But even as she provided some answers about Millete’s thoughts and actions — or at least tried to cast reasonable doubt upon the prosecution’s theories — Sabatini left unanswered one of the case’s biggest mysteries.
On the day after his wife was last seen alive, why did Millete turn off his phone, something he rarely did for more than a few minutes, and leave in the family’s SUV for more than 11 hours to an unknown location?
Sabatini suggested to the jury there were possible explanations for that aberrant behavior without settling on a specific reason.
But, she argued to the jury, the prosecution had the burden to prove Millete was disposing of his wife’s body that day, and they failed to do that beyond a reasonable doubt, she said.
“It’s not the defense’s job to come up with these scenarios for you; it is their job to prove guilt,” Sabatini told the jury. “… They’re accusing him of pulling it off almost perfectly while being messy everywhere else. How does that messy, emotional person do something so clinical? It defies logic.”
Sabatini ended by telling the jury the trial was supposed to be a search for the truth, not the pursuit of a conviction. She said prosecutors had left too many gaps in their case, hoping jurors would jump to conclusions.
“Do not let them shift their burden to you,” she said. “They have to prove it. The only thing they’ve proven that Larry is guilty of is being a human being.”
The jurors deliberated for about an hour Wednesday before heading home without reaching a verdict.
Read more Family demands an independent probe after ICE officer fatally shoots a man in Houston
