The twelfth day of testimony in the murder trial of Larry Millete saw investigator James Rhoades take to the witness stand. Until today, he’d been seated right next to Deputy District Attorney Christy Bowles.
Both are working as a prosecutorial team in the case against Larry, who’s accused of murdering his wife Maya more than five years ago and hiding her body, which has never been found. Larry has maintained his innocence since she vanished on January 7, 2021.
Rhoades has been the lead investigator looking into this case for the District Attorney’s Office. He was assigned beginning in April of 2021 and said he’d written nearly 60 different warrants and reviewed a massive amount of evidence.
He began by testifying about the records investigators found when they seized Larry’s personal cell phone. Rhoades said they couldn’t locate any direct text message thread between Larry and Maya.
There was no testimony giving context for the missing communications or any implication that they’d been deleted.
Instead, Rhoades said they only found a group chat thread for the time period of June 1, 2020, through June 30, 2020. That was between Larry’s personal phone, Maya’s personal cell phone, and her work cell phone.
Rhoades said Larry’s texts dominated the conversation at about a four-to-one rate, with Larry sending 473 of the 587 messages. He said most were Larry begging Maya to come back. These messages were during the brief time Maya had moved out of their home.
One text appeared to indicate that Larry was unfaithful at some point in the relationship. The text message from Larry stated, “I only strayed once. I promised to never do it again.”
Rhoades then went on to read several pages of Maya’s journal entries that were discovered when police served a search warrant at the Millete home in Chula Vista’s San Miguel Ranch neighborhood. Each entry was addressed from Maya to her two daughters.
One entry from September 2012 leveled accusations at Larry, including physical and mental abuse.
“Your dad and I had a huge fight tonight,” Maya’s journal entry stated. “It’s the breaking point for me.”
“He abuses me physically…I want to be strong so he never puts his hands on me again,” Maya wrote. “I’m literally afraid of your dad sometimes. He’s capable of hurting me.”
Maya also wrote, “Nothing stops him from forcing himself on me…This is a letter of apology to you both that our family can’t be whole.”
Rhoades appeared to have more entries to read, but Judge Enrique Camarena paused proceedings when the clock hit 4:30 p.m. If Larry’s 2023 preliminary hearing is any indication, Rhoades could remain on the witness stand for most of Tuesday.
Maya’s sister-in-law finishes her testimony about her texts with Larry
Monday also saw the return of Maya’s sister-in-law to the stand. So far, Genesis Tabalanza has spent more time testifying than any other witness.
Her testimony began last Wednesday. Tabalanza is married to Maya’s brother Jay-R.
Most of Tabalanza’s time testifying occurred during cross-examination. Colby Ryan, one of Larry’s defense attorneys, used that opportunity to slowly and methodically go over text messages between Tabalanza and Larry.
Most of those text messages related to Tabalazna acting as a confidant to Larry in 2020. Messages showed him depressed about his failing marriage while sharing details about Maya’s alleged affair.
Tabalanza’s frustration with having to confirm the accuracy of dozens upon dozens of text messages has been evident. At times, she’s pushed back against the process.
“How many more pages are we going to do?” Tabalanza asked as she read through page 109.
“I’m sorry, this is the process,” Judge Camarena told her.
“I’m sorry, your honor. This is just too much,” Tabalanza replied.
Several of her comments were also stricken from the record as she attempted to provide context about the messages. That included telling jurors that just because Larry texted her something, it didn’t mean it was true.
Ryan focused on messages about several key items:
Larry’s willingness to do anything or spend money on whatever Maya wanted to keep her in the marriage
Larry’s anxiety about his inability to give Maya space
Larry’s efforts to uncover Maya’s alleged affair
Maya allegedly being secretive and the impact on her three children
While he didn’t go through every single page of text message exhibits, Ryan got all the way to page 279 before ending his cross-examination. Deputy District Attorney Christy Bowles then chose to redirect her questioning of Tabalanza, seemingly to provide deeper context about the messages.
That included asking Tabalaza about Maya’s relationship with her children. Specifically, whether she believes that Maya would ever voluntarily walk away.
“Of course not,” Tabalanza said. “She would not abandon her kids.”
Witnesses testify about the plans Maya allegedly made for 2021
This morning, the prosecution called two witnesses who said they’d both been in contact with Maya in the days leading up to her disappearance. Both testified that Maya had made plans for the future, going against a narrative from the defense that she’d left on her own and hadn’t been murdered.
The first witness was a former co-worker of Maya’s, Claudia Julao, who described Maya as a mentor and friend. By late 2020, Julao said she’d left the world of federal contract oversight work and transitioned to a career in financial planning.
Julao said she’d spoken with Maya about her desire for estate planning. She said Maya told her, “she wanted to make sure that, ’God forbid anything happens to me, that my children are taken care of.’”
But Julao said Maya was unable to provide concrete information about her finances, saying that Larry controlled it all. Julao testified that Maya told her she’d get that information and reach out after the new year. She said that never happened.
Another witness, Camille Camacho, took the stand next. Camancho told the jury she was a professional photographer and was new to the San Diego area in late 2020.
In order to establish a client base, Camacho offered free photography sessions and digital retouching work. She testified that Maya reached out for the opportunity in December.
She said the plan was to photograph Maya with her new Jeep in the Anza Borrego desert, which she said sounded like an exciting opportunity to do something different. Over email, the pair agreed to a date in mid-January.
That photoshoot never took place, and Camacho said she never heard from Maya again.
Judge allows Larry’s family members to observe the trial
Prior to today, Judge Camarena had ruled that Larry’s mother, father, and aunt wouldn’t be allowed to watch testimony. That was because the prosecution could potentially call them as witnesses and there was concern that observing other witnesses could taint their answers.
This afternoon, they were seated inside alongside other family members. It was then revealed that the prosecution had changed its mind; it would not be asking them to testify.
So, with the defense also not planning to call them, the judge decided they could attend the remainder of the trial.