NBC 7’s Alexis Rivas breaks down the seventh day of testimony.
Friday was the seventh day of a preliminary hearing to decide if there’s enough evidence to move forward with a murder trial for Larry Millete, the man accused of killing Chula Vista mother Maya Millete. A body has never been found.
Chula Vista Police Department Detective Jesse Vicente was on the witness stand for the bulk of the day. A great deal of his testimony featured video evidence that was taken from four different homes in the San Miguel Ranch neighborhood. The Millete family home is located there, on Paseo Los Gatos. The videos captured the front of the home and the only two streets where cars can come and go. Together, they recorded a complete account of Jan. 7, 2021, through Jan. 10, 2021. That’s the period of time when Maya was last seen and the investigation into her disappearance began.
Coverage of the Hearing
Deputy District Attorney Christy Bowles walked Detective Vicente through the videos, which together formed a narrative of Maya’s activities on Jan. 7 and Larry’s activities on Jan. 8.
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Surveillance video shows Maya leaving the house on Jan. 7 with two of her children to take her Jeep Wrangler Rubicon to the car wash. Video shows her returning to the home just over an hour later. Vicente said she’s never recorded on any of the cameras after that point.
That evening, after 10 p.m., a neighbor’s camera captures audio of the sound of the Millete children playing in their backyard. Vicente said the neighbor told investigators it was unusual for them to be playing that late at night in addition to the fact that it was cold outside.
At 6 a.m. on Jan. 8, an unknown figure is seen walking on the driveway, getting into the family’s black Lexus SUV. It drives forward onto the street, then readjusts and backs up into the driveway. It goes back far enough that part of the SUV is sticking into the garage. Forty-five minutes later, surveillance video shows the SUV start to back up, then drive away from the home.
Vicente said Larry told police he was leaving the home with his youngest son for a day trip to the beach. No activity is recorded at the Millete home until the SUV returns to the house just after 6 p.m. the same day.
Vicente was asked about blood evidence found in the bathroom while police were serving a search warrant. During a previous day’s testimony, a witness described how it was collected, but couldn’t personally speak to what lab testing at the San Diego Sheriff’s Office revealed.
“It tested positive for blood, but talking to the Sheriff’s Department, they determined the DNA was not Maya’s or Larry’s,” Vicente said.
Vicente also told the court that Larry’s phone appeared to have been cleared of all its text messages in an effort to save storage space.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Bonita Martinez asked Vicente if there had been any credible tips regarding alleged sightings of Maya in Mexico, Las Vegas or at a border crossing. He said no. However, Vincente did say they received a tip in February of 2021 that a woman matching Maya’s description was seen being drunkenly removed from a Las Vegas hotel. Vincente said a married couple had seen reports of Maya’s disappearance on TV and reported it. He said they told police the woman asked to use their phone and gave them a 619 number, but before it could be dialed, an unknown man said she was with him and they left. Vicente said they made efforts to get more information from the couple, but were unable. He said they also worked with hotel security to review surveillance video, but were unable to confirm the identity of the woman.
Similar to previous days of testimony, many of Martinez’s questions were objected to and sustained by Judge Dwayne Moring. The judge found her questions to be vague, lacking in foundation, irrelevant to testimony, or outside the scope of cross-examination.
Some questions centered on if Maya was having an affair. To date, there has been no evidence or testimony delivered in court that has made that alleged affair a fact. Vicente was asked if Maya was seeing someone or a man while she and Larry were separated during the months of May and June 2020. Vincente said yes, but it wasn’t clear by the line of questioning if he was referring to an affair. Moments later, he was asked if she continued to see someone after that period of time, and he responded that he was unable to confirm that.
Martinez attempted to float several theories through questioning that Maya either took off on her own, disappeared during a hike or had a run-in with an unknown man who scared her on a previous occasion. Vicente told her the evidence in the case didn’t fit any of those situations.
“We go off of the facts,” Vicente said. “We go back to the last place someone was seen alive and who last saw her. And we keep going back to Paseo Los Gatos and Larry Millete.”
Martinez asked him if he believed Larry murdered her, and he said, “Yes.”
Before Vicente’s cross-examination was concluded, Bowles asked the judge if testimony could be paused so a different witness could take the stand due to scheduling. The defense agreed to allow that, and Chula Vista Police Sergeant Lorenzo “Roman” Ruiz took the stand. He currently works the overnight patrol shift for the department, but was assigned to the Crimes of Violence unit alongside Vicente during the Maya Millete investigation.
He testified about several key pieces of evidence that were seized from the Millete home. That included an AR-15 rifle and a shotgun. Ruiz also talked about two laptop computers, one which was primarily used by Larry and the other primarily used by Maya.
On Maya’s laptop, the following Google searches were conducted:
- Is manhandling a wife physical abuse?
- Can you track iphone in airplane mode?
- Physical abuse manifesting years after a marriage
On Larry’s laptop, Ruiz said he discovered these Google searches:
- Subliminal wife training
- Training your wife subliminally
There were also searches on Larry’s computer concerning how to make your wife engage in a specific sex act.
Sgt. Ruiz also showed the court pictures of other evidence collected which featured: Maya’s expired passport, five of her credit cards and her luggage. Outside the home, Ruiz said they found paperwork and a credit card that had been partially burned in a fireplace. He said they were unable to identify who they belonged to because they were too damaged. Cross-examination for Ruiz was beginning to get underway when the clock hit 4:30 p.m., and Judge Moring ended the proceedings for the day. The hearing will resume on Monday morning when both Vincente and Ruiz are expected back on the stand. The prosecution says it intends to call a few more witnesses and hopes to conclude by the end of the day Monday or on Tuesday.
