During nearly three hours of closing arguments Tuesday, Deputy District Attorney Christy Bowles said there’s only one reasonable explanation for what happened to Maya Millete in January of 2021 – her husband Larry Millete murdered her.
“May Millete would not, could not, and did not leave her children,” Bowles said. “To think that she left her three children that she spent her life concerned about…it’s unreasonable, unfathomable, and it’s impossible.”
At times with her voice rising with emotion, Bowles methodically laid out the case against the Chula Vista father – telling jurors his desperate efforts to keep Maya from filing for divorce forced him to carry out a long-conceived plan to her life.
“May is just telling him, we are done. I want a life without you,” Bowles said. “He will have none of it!”
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An undated picture of Larry & Maya Millete.
Prosecutors said Larry murdered Maya and disposed of her body. Since he was locked up in October of 2021, Larry Millete has proclaimed his innocence.
Her body has never been recovered. In fact, prosecutors cannot tell jurors exactly how Maya died or precisely where she was killed.
Instead, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office spent 24 days presenting a painstaking circumstantial case. They argued that hundreds of individual pieces of evidence combine to tell one story – that Larry is guilty.
Bowles said that Larry exhibited every symptom of being an abuser who used coercive control against Maya. She said when that failed, he desperately turned to online spellcasters to save his failing marriage.
At first, Bowles said the messages focused on controlling her and making her dependent on him. But she said messages turned darker when she firmly set her mind to divorce.
Bowles showed the jurors messages where Larry asked for Maya to be injured, sickened, and punished.
“We know exactly what he wants. Make her suffer!” Bowles said. “He is willing for her to be so injured that she will have to depend on him. That’s what he wants. Pain, suffering, and injury. He is capable of wanting her dead, because he cannot fathom a life without her.”
Deputy district attorney Christy Bowles questions a witness during Larry Millete’s preliminary hearing in 2023.
As Bowles leveled evidence she said showed Larry’s state of mind, it was clear her speech was impacting Larry emotionally. While he wasn’t seen overtly wiping tears from his eyes, he asked a bailiff for a box of tissues.
When it became apparent that Maya was determined to divorce Larry, Bowles said he murdered her. Bowles said Larry spent months researching the deadly neurotoxin derived from the poison hemlock plant, which was found in a vial inside his home.
The prosecutor said all evidence points to Larry’s guilt, and not the defense’s theory that Maya secretly left her home behind, her children behind, and her life behind.
“The only reasonable conclusion is that May Millete is deceased,” Bowles said. “She wasn’t planning a great escape.”
In a fiery finish, Bowles showed multiple photos of Maya with her three children, telling jurors that the mother was taken away from the people in life she loved more than anything else.
“You now have all the pieces you need. You don’t need a body to know what happened,” Bowles said. “May Millete is dead, and the defendant is the one who killed her! He is guilty! The evidence is overwhelming! Hold him accountable and find him guilty of first-degree murder!”
Defense to deliver its closing arguments on Wednesday
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Defense attorney Liann Sabatini speaks during a status hearing for Larry Millete on January 8, 2024.
Larry’s defense attorneys will get their opportunity to persuade jurors first thing Wednesday morning. Up to this point, the defense has worked to punch holes in the circumstantial evidence in the case.
They say investigators locked onto Larry almost immediately, ignored other investigative leads, and still cannot prove Maya is dead or that a murder even occurred. While they never presented any testimony that confirmed Larry’s alibi the day after Maya vanished, they’ve argued that Maya could have left the home of her own accord.
They’ve said she could have taken a route that avoided being captured on more than a half dozen cameras. They said that route involved scaling the family’s backyard fence, navigating down a drainage ditch, then hiking along a mountain trail to any number of neighborhood exits.
The options jurors have if they decide to convict Larry
Before closing arguments began today, the jury was given instructions on what they will be deliberating on. That’s how they should interpret certain types of evidence and testimony, as well as which charges they could find him guilty of.
That includes:
First-degree murder: Jurors would need to believe that Larry not only intended to kill Maya, but also planned her death in advance.
Second-degree murder: Jurors would need to believe that Larry intended to kill Maya, but that the decision to kill was made rashly.
Voluntary manslaughter: Juros would need to believe Maya’s killing was intentional, but lacked premeditation, and occurred because Larry was provoked in some manner.
Involuntary manslaughter: Jurors would need to believe the killing was unintentional and resulted from the defendant’s recklessness or criminal negligence, such as if the juror believes Larry purposefully poisoned Maya, but didn’t intend to end her life.
To arrive at any of these convictions, jurors don’t need to come to any particular conclusion about how Maya was killed, only that Larry is responsible.