What to Know
- May "Maya" Millete, a Chula Vista mother of three, was last seen alive on Jan. 7, 2021
- In October 2021, police arrested her husband, Larry Millete on a first-degree murder charge
- No body has ever been recovered
A witness for the prosecution revealed a major piece of information in the case against Larry Millete, the husband accused of murdering his wife May "Maya" Millete two years ago.
David Garber, a Forensic Specialist with the Chula Vista Police Department, said detectives discovered evidence of blood in the master bathroom of the family’s home while searching it in January of 2021. While being cross-examined by Defense Attorney Bonita Martinez, Garber was asked if detectives found any evidence of blood splatter in the house.
“In the main bedroom bathroom, on one of the vanities there appeared to be reddish brown stains that were less than one millimeter in size,” Garber said. “Those stains were tested using a presumptive blood test. And that test came back positive.”
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Garber said the test that was conducted that day didn’t reveal if it was human blood, or if it came from Maya, only that it tested positive. He says samples were further analyzed by a crime lab, but didn’t know what those results were. Garber’s primary job with the department is to take crime scene photos and collect evidence.
Garber said the splatter was over a two-to-three-foot area on the vanity. He says that wasn’t the only blood evidence found.
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“That area was also examined using another presumptive blood test,” Garber told the court. “The whole bathroom, including the tub, was sprayed with a chemical named Bluestar. This chemical reacts with blood to give off a chemiluminescence. I did spray the bathroom and there was one other area that exhibited that chemiluminescence.”
Earlier in the day, the prosecution called Desteny Johnson to the stand. She works as a legal assistant for Broaden Law LLP, a family law firm. She told the court she was contacted by Maya Millete on January 7. Johnson said she took down information from Maya about her intention to file for divorce, and said Maya feared retaliation from her husband over contacting the firm and didn’t want to meet with an attorney in-person. Johnson said Maya also expressed a desire to move out of the family’s home.
“The way she spoke just made me feel like she needed to come in and discuss options with the attorney as far as safety,” Johnson said.
Johnson also told the court Maya scheduled an appointment the following week on January 12, because she planned a trip to Big Bear to celebrate her daughter’s birthday over the weekend. Johnson said Maya didn’t want any talk of divorce to upset that trip. But Johnson said Maya never called into that appointment.
“She was so looking forward to the trip with her children and she never got to go,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the call was more intense than the usual client intake conversations she’s had. Johnson said she brought up her concerns with attorneys of her firm, who advised her to call Chula Vista Police. She said she had that conversation with officers on January 11. She was emotional when she told the court she wished she’d done more and sooner.
“That will live with me forever,” Johnson said. “I do feel some remorse for sending her an intake form. I feel like that was maybe something that was discoverable. And that will make me question my role. And for that, I won’t forget it."
Despite the absence of a body, the hearing for Larry began in a downtown San Diego courthouse on Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. in front of Judge Dwayne Moring, who will preside over the proceedings in Dept. 2201, the former courtroom of Judge Frederick Link, who oversaw many of the biggest criminal cases in San Diego history.
Testimony was delayed for several hours, though, while motions were argued by the lawyers involved with the case.
Maya was last seen in the couple's home on Paseo Los Gatos in Chula Vista at around 5 p.m. home on Jan. 7, 2021. Her disappearance occurred two days before the family was set to travel on a planned trip to Big Bear for her daughter’s birthday. Two days later, Maya's sister, Maricris Drouaillet, called Chula Vista police to report that her 39-year-old sister was missing. Maya’s car was still at her home but phone calls went straight to her voicemail after her disappearance.
Since then, the residence was visited by police on multiple occasions, dozens of search parties have been held to locate Maya, and, in October 2021, Larry was arrested and charged with murder in the first degree as well as a weapons charge connected to a gun found during one of the searches.
NBC 7 will bring you the Millete hearing — expected to last two to three weeks — every day, other than pauses if required by the court or during recesses. Watch Live in the player above, on Roku Channel 134 or Samsung TV+ 1035
Since his arrest, Larry has had an enormous amount of time to contemplate the case being made against him by the office of San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan and the Chula Vista Police Department.
His case was originally set to be heard in the South Bay courthouse but moved north along with Moring, who was transferred to the larger downtown courthouse and who has presided over all of the status conferences and other hearings for the case during the past year. NBC 7 will stream live coverage every day of the hearing, which is expected to last two to three weeks, according to San Diego Superior Court spokeswoman Emily Cox.
In California felony cases, a preliminary hearing is held to review the evidence and listen to witnesses, culminating in a judge ruling whether the state has probable cause to try the defendant.
Prosecutors Disclose Evidence in Case Against Larry Millete
Court watchers are familiar with a wealth of evidence in this case, thanks to an unusual news conference held in the fall of 2021 by District Attorney Stephan, in which she disclosed many facts in the case that had not yet been in public view. In the absence of a body, much of the evidence the CVPD, NCIS and the FBI have assembled is circumstantial.
While Stephan said at the remarkable 2021 news conference that she would only be disclosing information that would not taint a prospective jury pool, she did share a tranche of particulars.
Law enforcement officials tend to favor the victim's given name, May, while NBC 7 and other news outlets have adopted the usage of the name Maya that she was called by friends and family — Ed.
- The Milletes' 2015 black Lexus GX460 SUV with the license plate "Maylani" is believed to have been used to transport Maya's body on Jan. 8
- Starting in 2020 and continuing till her disappearance, Maya wanted a divorce for many reasons. Larry did not
- The last call recorded that Maya made was to a divorce attorney
- When Maya called a divorce attorney on Jan. 7, Larry sent text messages that were screenshotted to his boss that let him know that the divorce was going to take place
- Larry contacted “spellcasters” in an effort to change Maya's mind (Spellcasters are persons purporting to wield magical powers of persuasion — Ed.)
- In December of 2020, Larry's messages to spellcasters became more threatening in tone and asked for her to become incapacitated, for her to be in an accident, to suffer broken bones. Stephan said that Larry was "displaying his homicidal ideations to harm May"
- Maya scheduled an appointment with a divorce lawyer on Jan. 12
- The last phone call or digital message (sent via Facebook Messenger) Maya sent was on Jan. 7 at 8:15 p.m.
- Larry sent a text on Jan. 7, the last day Maya was seen alive, that said, "I think she wants me to snap," and, "I’m shaking inside, ready to snap"
- At 9:21 p.m. on Jan. 7, Larry screen-shotted from his account crypto-currency amounts of money that were in his crypto-currency account to his two daughters
- Maya’s phone activity stopped on Jan. 8 at 1:25 a.m.
- On Jan. 9, Larry’s spellcaster messages, which had been sent on a daily basis, turned their focus away from Maya and toward a man whom Larry blamed for his failed relationship
- At 5:58 a.m. on Jan. 8, security video shows Larry moving his black Lexus GX460 SUV. The vehicle was backed into the driveway, but Larry repositioned it so that the rear of the vehicle was inside a garage door. From where it was re-parked, no video cameras are positioned to record what was occurring
- At 6:45 a.m. on Jan. 8, Larry drove away, not returning for 11 hours and 21 minutes
- Larry's phone remained in the Millete home in Eastlake during the time he was gone from the house on Jan. 8, which had the effect of preventing tracking it with GPS
- Larry told investigators he was in Solana Beach on Jan. 8 while he was away from his Chula Vista home
- Shown a map by investigators asking about his whereabouts on Jan. 8, Larry pointed to Torrey Pines State Beach, four miles away from Solana Beach
- Larry's employer called him "frantically" on Jan. 8, even calling Maya's phone, in an effort to locate Larry, who was supposed to have been working that day. Larry's boss said it was not like Larry to not show up for work
- On Jan. 26, detectives served a search warrant to seize the contents of the Lexus SUV's infotainment system
- The report generated from the downloaded infotainment system indicated a "navigation event" on Jan. 8 at 3:29 p.m. for the Millete home in Chula Vista
- From the report, officials believe that Larry looked up directions to return home; investigators believe it's possible Larry left Maya's body somewhere approximately 2.5-hour drive (or closer) away from his home. They have released that information in the hopes that it may jog the memory of someone who saw the vehicle
- When a search warrant was served at the house, investigators were looking for firearms that were registered to Larry. Despite a court order, Larry had not turned over one of those weapons, a .40 caliber gun. That gun is still missing
- Nine loud bangs can be heard at about 9:57 p.m. on Jan. 7 on an audio/video security recording that was captured by a neighbor of the Milletes. Due to the quality of the recording, investigators have been unable to confirm if the noises were, in fact, gunshots
- At 10:34 p.m. on Jan. 7, neighbors heard the Millete children playing in the back yard of their home. This was unusual because of the time of night
- Maya's brother went to the Millete home in Chula Vista at about 6:30 p.m. At first, Larry told her brother he had been at work and did not know what Maya was doing. Then, Larry said he had been at the beach
- Maricris Drouaillet, Maya's sister, was the one who called police to report Maya missing, not Larry
- Part of a no-body prosecution is to look for proof of life, and no proof that Maya is alive has been found
- There have been no withdrawals from any financial accounts since Maya was last seen on Jan. 7
- All of Maya's valuables were left in the Chula Vista home
- All four of the Milletes' vehicles are accounted for
- After an extensive re-creation and experiment conducted in September 2021, it was determined that Maya's phone was at her Chula Vista home or thereabout when it was last powered on. Stephan said that Maya always had her phone
CVPD Arrest Warrant for Larry Millete
The arrest warrant filed by Chula Vista police contains some details Stephan did not touch upon or explain in full at the news conference, including the fact that during the investigation, "detectives learned that May and Larry had been having marital issues for the past year, and that Larry discovered that May had an affair."
Other significant elements in the arrest report alleged by investigators include the following:
- Detectives learned that Maya and Larry had an argument on the evening of Jan. 7
- All the text messages between Larry and Maya before Jan. 9 were deleted. Larry told police he deleted the messages to conserve space on his phone
- Security camera footage shows Maya entering her house on Jan. 7 at 4:42 p.m., but there is no footage of her leaving the residence
- At 4:39 p.m. on Jan. 7, the last day Maya was seen alive, Larry sent an email to a spellcaster that read, at least in part, "make her realize that we are meant to be with each other. Make her miserable without me. Make her want to sleep on the same bed for all eternity (praying hands emoji)."
- On Jan. 9, Larry emailed a spellcaster shortly before 6 a.m. to "remove or stop hexing my wife May"
- During a family trip to the Glamis Sand Dunes in Imperial County for a New Year's celebration in January 2021, Larry asked a family member if he knew someone to "get" the other guy. This was interpreted as finding someone to hurt the man with whom May was having an affair
- May confided to a friend that at one point in the past, Larry had choked her until she passed out
- Investigators allege that as their relationship declined, Maya was no longer interested in a physical relationship and Larry searched the Internet for "my wife doesn't want me to touch her" and "flunitrazepam, Rohypnol and diphenhydramine." According to the DEA, flunitrazepam is a generic name for Rohypnol, a date rape drug commonly known as a "roofie"
- Family and friends confirm that May was not suicidal and would never voluntarily leave her kid
- Toward the end of the arrest report, Larry's identifying characteristics are recorded, including the fact that he has a tattoo on his back that reads, "Only God Can Judge Me."
Court hearings are expected to begin at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.
NBC 7 will bring you the Millete hearing — expected to last two to three weeks — every day, other than pauses if required by the court or during recesses. Watch Live in the player above, on Roku Channel 134 or Samsung TV+ 1035
