{"id":4196,"date":"2026-07-10T14:41:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4196"},"modified":"2026-07-10T14:41:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:41:03","slug":"larry-millete-husband-of-missing-california-mother-maya-millete-convicted-of-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4196","title":{"rendered":"Larry Millete, husband of missing California mother \u2018Maya\u2019 Millete, convicted of murder"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In one of the most high-profile and closely watched cases in Chula Vista history, a jury on Thursday convicted\u00a0Larry Millete of first-degree murder for killing his wife and the mother of his three children, May \u201cMaya\u201d Millete, who has not been seen or heard from since she disappeared from the couple\u2019s home in January 2021.<\/p>\n

Read more Park Fire: Two years later, trial set for man accused of starting California\u2019s 4th largest wildfire<\/a><\/p>\n

The Chula Vista jury needed just a single day \u2014 about five hours \u2014 to deliberate after a trial that lasted seven weeks and featured testimony from more than 60 witnesses. One juror said the evidence was \u201coverwhelming,\u201d and there was little dispute among the jury about what happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cLarry did it,\u201d Beverly Feldman said outside the Chula Vista Superior Courthouse. \u201cWe believe he murdered her and he knows where (her body) is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old Millete, who has been in custody since October 2021, did not appear to react to the verdict as it was announced in a crowded third-floor courtroom. He faces 25 years to life in prison when sentenced.<\/p>\n

\u201cJustice \u2026 (has) been served today,\u201d Maricris Drouaillet, May Millete\u2019s sister, told reporters gathered outside the courtroom. \u201cBut we still have my sister out there \u2026 We still have to bring my sister home, to bring her to her three children that\u2019s been waiting for her for five years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deputy District Attorney Christy Bowles, who prosecuted the case, said she hoped the verdict would provide a measure of justice and accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur thoughts, the thoughts of myself and my team, remain with May Millete\u2019s family, her friends, and especially her three children,\u201d Bowles said outside the courtroom. \u201cNo verdict can erase the pain of losing May or the years of uncertainty that have endured.\u201d<\/p>\n

May Millete, who worked as a civilian contract specialist at the Naval Information Warfare Center, was last seen alive Jan. 7, 2021, at the family\u2019s home in the San Miguel Ranch neighborhood near Eastlake.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

She was 39 years old when she went missing without a trace in a case that drew national headlines \u2014 it was featured on television shows such as \u201cDr. Phil\u201d and \u201c48 Hours,\u201d and in People magazine. Her disappearance prompted hundreds of volunteers to search for her, both in the rugged foothills near her eastern Chula Vista home and in remote desert and mountain regions across Southern California, where she enjoyed off-roading in her Jeep.<\/p>\n

Bowles told the jury during trial that May would have never willingly abandoned her children. The prosecutor argued the only reasonable explanation for her disappearance was that Millete killed her and successfully disposed of her body, which has never been found.<\/p>\n

Feldman\u00a0said she\u2019s also a mother of three, and that she and her fellow jurors agreed that May would have never skipped out on her children.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe loved her children, it was obvious,\u201d Feldman said. \u201cThere are mothers like me, like May, that we would not leave our children for nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Bowles alleged at trial that Millete killed his wife on the same day she\u2019d made an appointment with a divorce lawyer to end their 20-year marriage. Bowles told jurors Millete was angry at May over her yearlong affair with another man and likely poisoned her with the toxic plant hemlock. And she alleged that Millete disposed of May\u2019s body on Jan. 8, when he powered down his phone and left for more than 11 hours to an unknown location.<\/p>\n

Feldman said that evidence about Millete\u2019s suspicious actions from the day after May\u2019s disappearance was the strongest and most convincing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prosecution, I tell you, proved \u2026 in spades that he had the means, he had the motive, and he had the opportunity,\u201d Feldman said.<\/p>\n

Defense attorneys Colby Ryan and Liann Sabatini had argued that there were other plausible explanations for May\u2019s disappearance, and that prosecutors had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that she was dead or that her husband killed her.<\/p>\n

Read more American Airlines delayed my flight, so I drove. Why can\u2019t I get a refund?<\/a><\/p>\n

Feldman said the jury didn\u2019t see it that way. She said the evidence was overwhelming, and the defense did not do enough to convince the jurors there was any reasonable doubt.<\/p>\n

She said the entire jury quickly agreed Millete was guilty of murder, and 11 of the 12 also quickly agreed it was premeditated in the first degree. The only initial holdout, according to Feldman, was a woman who wanted to carefully read back over the judge\u2019s orders on how to decide the degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe wanted to make sure she could sleep at night,\u201d Feldman said. Once that juror felt comfortable convicting in the first degree, Feldman said, the deliberations were done and the jury notified the judge of its verdict.<\/p>\n

Family members from both sides of the case attended much of the trial, and during opening statements and closing arguments, court officials opened an overflow room for dozens of reporters and interested members of the public who couldn\u2019t fit in the main courtroom.<\/p>\n

South San Diego resident Sylvia Villa, who did not know May but had been following the case since its early stages, said she attended nearly every day of the trial, getting in line at 6 a.m. daily to make sure she could get a seat.<\/p>\n

When the verdict was read, she and several other women \u2014 supporters of the family who met through their following of the case \u2014 quietly celebrated in the overflow courtroom, then moved outside to cheer for May\u2019s family as they exited the main courtroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was just for Maya,\u201d Villa said. \u201cI hope her soul can finally rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Villa is holding out hope that one day soon, either through luck or Millete having a change of heart, May\u2019s family will find her body and be able to give it a final resting place.<\/p>\n

Because there was no body, the case was built on circumstantial evidence. Prosecutors alleged that Millete\u2019s desire to harm his wife was laid out in hundreds of messages that he sent to online spell-casters in a desperate search for a magical solution to his marital problems.<\/p>\n

Feldman said those messages, and the abrupt end of those messages once his wife went missing, were also key pieces of convincing evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case demonstrates that justice does not depend on recovering a victim\u2019s body,\u201d Bowles, the prosecutor, said. \u201cCircumstantial evidence is evidence, and when it proves beyond a reasonable doubt, the law allows jurors to hold the defendant accountable, which they did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Millete\u2019s defense team never conceded during trial that May was dead, instead suggesting that she might still be alive somewhere, or that she might have left her home willingly and then been killed by someone else.<\/p>\n

But in the end, the jurors sided with Bowles, who told them during closing arguments Tuesday that \u201cthe only reasonable conclusion is that May Millete is dead and the defendant killed her.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Thursday\u2019s verdict, May\u2019s sister, the prosecutor and acting Chula Vista Police Chief Dan Peak said the search for May\u2019s body will continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday gives a little bit of justice on behalf of May, and to her family \u2026 but it doesn\u2019t bring closure,\u201d Peak said. \u201cShe is still out there. She is still missing. And we\u2019re going to work tirelessly looking for her to try to find her and bring her home, so she can be with her family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more 15-year-old boy raped outside home in New York, suspect pictured<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May Millete, who worked as a civilian contract specialist at the Naval Information Warfare Center, was last seen alive Jan. 7, 2021, at the family\u2019s home in the San Miguel Ranch neighborhood near Eastlake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nLarry Millete, husband of missing California mother \u2018Maya\u2019 Millete, convicted of murder - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4196\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Larry Millete, husband of missing California mother \u2018Maya\u2019 Millete, convicted of murder - 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