Tuesday, 28 July 2026, 3:51
A Chula Vista jury has convicted Larry Millete of first-degree murder in the 2021 disappearance of his wife, Maya “Maya” Millete, a case that captivated San Diego County and the nation. Despite the absence of a body, prosecutors built a circumstantial case centered on motive, opportunity, and disturbing evidence of premeditation.
After seven weeks of testimony from more than 60 witnesses, the jury deliberated for about five hours before returning the guilty verdict on Thursday. Millete, 44, showed no reaction as the decision was read in a packed Chula Vista Superior Courthouse. One juror, Beverly Feldman, said the evidence was “overwhelming” and that there was little dispute among the jury about what happened. “Larry did it,” Feldman said outside the courthouse. “We believe he murdered her and he knows where (her body) is.” Feldman also told Courthouse News, “The prosecution was very impressive. The defense was way in over their heads. The burden wasn’t on them. It was on the prosecution, and they laid out evidence that was overwhelming. We could see what Larry did.” Sentencing has not been set; an unresolved assault weapon possession charge will be addressed first. Millete faces up to 25 years to life in state prison for Maya’s murder. He is scheduled for a status conference next month. District Attorney Summer Stephan referred to the Millete saga, which, in public, started as an extensive search for the missing woman, as a “difficult and emotional case.” “Finally, justice has been served for Maya and for everyone who has carried the weight of her absence for more than five years,” Stephan said in statement. “Our hearts are with Maya’s family, friends and especially her three children, who have endured an unimaginable loss.” She added, “We will never stop hoping that Maya can be brought home so her loved ones can finally lay her to rest with the dignity she deserves.”
Deputy District Attorney Christy Bowles, who prosecuted the case, and Maya's sister, Maricris Drouaillet, expressed gratitude for the jury's verdict, but said their work would not be finished until Maya's body was found. “While today's verdict is significant, Maya is still missing,” Bowles said. “We continue to hope that one day, she will be found so her family can lay her to rest with the dignity she deserves.” Drouaillet, who for years organized searches for her younger sister, said, “Justice will have been served today, but we still have my sister out there. We still have the second step to go through. We still have to bring my sister home, to bring her to her three children.” Drouaillet made the initial phone call to police when Maya went missing. “She is still out there,” said Dan Peak, assistant chief of the Chula Vista Police Department. “She is still missing. And we are going to work tirelessly to continue looking for her and try to find her and bring her home.” After the verdict, Peak told KNSD, “Today gives a little bit of justice on behalf of Maya and to her family for her being missing all these years. But it doesn’t bring closure. She is still out there; she is still missing. And we are going to work tirelessly to continue looking for her and to try to find her and bring her home so she can be with her family.”
During the trial, jurors were asked to determine whether Millete was guilty of first-degree murder in Maya’s disappearance, though they also had the option to consider lesser charges including second-degree murder or manslaughter. The defense argued Maya could have disappeared voluntarily or potentially crossed the border. The jury didn’t unanimously agree on how Maya Millete was killed, but prosecutors had suggested that she was likely poisoned with the toxic plant hemlock. Feldman said outside the courthouse that the panel believed the victim was likely poisoned or strangled.
Deputy District Attorney Christy Bowles argued that Larry Millete killed his wife because she wanted a divorce after a 20-year marriage. The prosecution highlighted his possessive and controlling behavior, including tracking her movements, controlling finances, and soliciting “spell casters” to magically influence her. Bowles noted that requests to the magic practitioners evolved from making Maya fall in love again to causing her illness or incapacitation—and abruptly stopped after her disappearance. Testimony from spellcasters revealed that they had been hired by the defendant with instructions to make Maya Millete “get sick and stay sick” until she realized she was in love with the defendant and to “banish everyone from her life with the exception of family.”
Key evidence included a vial found in the home that tested positive for coniine, a poison found in hemlock. Larry had searched online for hemlock and other methods to kill or incapacitate someone. Surveillance showed Maya entering the family home on Jan. 7, 2021, but never leaving. Her cell phone ceased all connections around 1:25 a.m. on Jan. 8. Larry’s phone also went dark, and he left in an SUV for about 11 hours, returning around 6 p.m. Bowles argued this was the window for disposing of Maya’s body. Feldman said that evidence about Millete’s suspicious actions from the day after Maya’s disappearance was the strongest and most convincing. “The prosecution, I tell you, proved … in spades that he had the means, he had the motive, and he had the opportunity,” Feldman said.
Prosecutors allege Larry killed his wife in their home because she sought a divorce, then loaded her body into an SUV and disposed of her on Jan. 8, during a period of about 12 hours in which his whereabouts remain unknown. Her body has never been found, but police and prosecutors say there is no evidence to suggest she was alive after that date. While Bowles conceded to jurors that she could not specifically say how Maya Millete died, she argued Larry was the only person with the means and motive to kill her. The prosecution's case focused largely on what Bowles described as Larry's possessive and controlling behavior, which allegedly included regularly tracking Maya's whereabouts, controlling her finances and ultimately soliciting the assistance of “spell casters” he believed could magically influence Maya to give up her plans for divorce. The requests to spell casters evolved over the months leading to Maya's disappearance from seeking to make her fall in love with him again to making her obey him to causing her to become sick or incapacitated so she would be dependent on him. Bowles argued those messages illustrated his capability to cause his wife physical harm and noted his spell requests abruptly ended following Maya's disappearance. The prosecutor also sought to dispel the notion that Maya voluntarily vanished, noting Maya's plans for the coming year and her devotion to her three children.
One critical piece of evidence was Maya’s journal. In it, explosive entries spoke of fears that she had regarding her husband. The mother of three accused him of domestic abuse and wrote about standing up for herself. “He abuses me physically. … I want to be strong, so he never puts his hands on me again,” she wrote in one entry. In another passage, she added: “I’m literally afraid of your dad sometimes. He’s capable of hurting me.” Maya also appeared to accuse Larry of marital rape. “Nothing stops him from forcing himself on me,” she wrote. As the couple was nearing divorce in the final months of their relationship, Maya penned a message to Larry months before her disappearance. “Let me find my peace… I cannot find it with you,” she wrote, adding that their relationship was “unhealthy” and “toxic.”
In a shocking turn, former Chula Vista Police Department forensic specialist David Garber testified that investigators found searches including “how to mentally torture someone with words,” “psychological torture,” and “how to mentally torture someone.” Garber further testified that investigators discovered what could be evidence of a small bloodstain in the trunk of Larry’s Lexus, along with streaks suggesting the area had been wiped clean.
Defense attorney Liann Sabatini argued that Larry was a heartbroken husband conducting a “tragic investigation” into Maya’s affair. She claimed Maya was gaslighting him and that the poison hemlock could have been picked by one of their children, as the plant is common in San Diego County. Sabatini dismissed the poison theory as “silly” and stressed the lack of a body, crime scene, murder weapon, or eyewitnesses. She urged jurors not to speculate. Defense attorneys Colby Ryan and Liann Sabatini had argued that there were other plausible explanations for Maya’s disappearance, and that prosecutors had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that she was dead or that her husband killed her. Feldman said the jury didn’t 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. 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’s orders on how to decide the degree. “She wanted to make sure she could sleep at night,” 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.
Sabatini said in her closing arguments that Larry's behavior was colored by Maya's ongoing affair with a co-worker and that his conduct that was being classified as stalking was actually Larry conducting a “tragic investigation” in which he was trying to confirm whether Maya was cheating. Sabatini argued Larry was being psychologically abused and “gaslit” by Maya, whom she said was denying the affair to family and friends while at the same time portraying Larry as “crazy” and “the villain” for suspecting it. While she said jurors might not agree with how Larry handled the situation, Sabatini said, “There is no playbook for heartbreak.” Regarding the alleged murder, Sabatini told jurors they were being asked to speculate rather than rely on facts in a case that lacked a body, crime scene, murder weapon or eyewitnesses. Bowles argued the lack of a body was even more compelling evidence that Maya's disappearance was criminal and “so well-planned that it is nothing other than premeditation.” Though Bowles said she could not articulate the exact method of death, the presence of poison hemlock in the home has been referenced as a potential method. The contents of a vial found inside the Millete home following his arrest tested positive for coniine -- a poisonous compound found in poison hemlock -- and Larry had searched numerous times for poison hemlock online, as well as other methods for killing or incapacitating someone. But Sabatini dismissed the poison theory as “silly,” arguing there was no reason for Larry to keep the plant inside his home nearly a year after Maya's disappearance if he was guilty and that it was more likely one of his children picked the plant, as poison hemlock is commonly found throughout San Diego County. She also argued that Larry searched for the plant as a means to commit suicide due to his despair over his deteriorating marriage.
The Millete case unfolded in Chula Vista, a city in San Diego County. Maya, a civilian contract specialist at the Naval Information Warfare Center, was last seen at the family’s home in the San Miguel Ranch neighborhood. She was 39 years old when she went missing. Her disappearance prompted large-scale searches in nearby foothills and remote areas of Southern California, involving hundreds of volunteers. The case received extensive local media coverage and was featured on national programs like “Dr. Phil” and “48 Hours,” and in People magazine.
Maya Millete vanished on Jan. 7, 2021, after telling family she planned to file for divorce. Larry Millete was arrested in October 2021. The case became a symbol of the challenges in prosecuting domestic violence homicides without a body. The trial highlighted the use of digital evidence, including online searches and cell phone data, to establish a timeline. In the days and weeks before her death, Maya had confided in close friends and family that she was unhappy in her marriage and wanted to leave, but was concerned about how her husband might respond to a request to separate. “She did tell us that she wanted a divorce, and she did tell us that if anything happened to her, to look at her husband,” Maya Millete’s sister, Maricris Drouaillet, told Court TV in 2025. “She was very fearful about what might happen to her and the kids.”
The conviction brings a measure of closure to Maya’s family, but her sister Maricris Drouaillet emphasized the search continues: “We still have to bring my sister home.” The case underscores the importance of circumstantial evidence in no-body murder trials and the devastating impact of domestic violence. Anyone with information about Maya Millete’s whereabouts is urged to contact the Chula Vista Police Department.
