The twelfth day of testimony in the murder trial of Larry Millete saw investigator James Rhoades take to the witness stand. Until today, he\u2019d been seated right next to Deputy District Attorney Christy Bowles.<\/p>\n
Both are working as a prosecutorial team in the case against Larry, who\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Rhoades has been the lead investigator looking into this case for the District Attorney\u2019s Office. He was assigned beginning in April of 2021 and said he\u2019d written nearly 60 different warrants and reviewed a massive amount of evidence.<\/p>\n
He began by testifying about the records investigators found when they seized Larry\u2019s personal cell phone. Rhoades said they couldn\u2019t locate any direct text message thread between Larry and Maya.<\/p>\n
There was no testimony giving context for the missing communications or any implication that they\u2019d been deleted.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s personal phone, Maya\u2019s personal cell phone, and her work cell phone.<\/p>\n
Rhoades said Larry\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
One text appeared to indicate that Larry was unfaithful at some point in the relationship. The text message from Larry stated, \u201cI only strayed once. I promised to never do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rhoades then went on to read several pages of Maya\u2019s journal entries that were discovered when police served a search warrant at the Millete home in Chula Vista\u2019s San Miguel Ranch neighborhood. Each entry was addressed from Maya to her two daughters.<\/p>\n
One entry from September 2012 leveled accusations at Larry, including physical and mental abuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYour dad and I had a huge fight tonight,\u201d Maya\u2019s journal entry stated. \u201cIt\u2019s the breaking point for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe abuses me physically…I want to be strong so he never puts his hands on me again,\u201d Maya wrote. \u201cI’m literally afraid of your dad sometimes. He’s capable of hurting me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maya also wrote, \u201cNothing stops him from forcing himself on me\u2026This is a letter of apology to you both that our family can’t be whole.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rhoades appeared to have more entries to read, but Judge Enrique Camarena paused proceedings when the clock hit 4:30 p.m. If Larry\u2019s 2023 preliminary hearing is any indication, Rhoades could remain on the witness stand for most of Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Maya\u2019s sister-in-law finishes her testimony about her texts with Larry<\/p>\n
Monday also saw the return of Maya\u2019s sister-in-law to the stand. So far, Genesis Tabalanza has spent more time testifying than any other witness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her testimony began last Wednesday. Tabalanza is married to Maya\u2019s brother Jay-R.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Most of Tabalanza\u2019s time testifying occurred during cross-examination. Colby Ryan, one of Larry\u2019s defense attorneys, used that opportunity to slowly and methodically go over text messages between Tabalanza and Larry.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s alleged affair.<\/p>\n
Tabalanza\u2019s frustration with having to confirm the accuracy of dozens upon dozens of text messages has been evident. At times, she\u2019s pushed back against the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many more pages are we going to do?\u201d Tabalanza asked as she read through page 109.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry, this is the process,\u201d Judge Camarena told her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry, your honor. This is just too much,\u201d Tabalanza replied.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Ryan focused on messages about several key items:<\/p>\n
Larry\u2019s willingness to do anything or spend money on whatever Maya wanted to keep her in the marriage<\/p>\n
Larry\u2019s anxiety about his inability to give Maya space<\/p>\n
Larry\u2019s efforts to uncover Maya\u2019s alleged affair<\/p>\n
Maya allegedly being secretive and the impact on her three children<\/p>\n
While he didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
That included asking Tabalaza about Maya\u2019s relationship with her children. Specifically, whether she believes that Maya would ever voluntarily walk away.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course not,\u201d Tabalanza said. \u201cShe would not abandon her kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Witnesses testify about the plans Maya allegedly made for 2021<\/p>\n
This morning, the prosecution called two witnesses who said they\u2019d both been in contact with Maya in the days leading up to her disappearance. Both testified that Maya had made\u00a0 plans for the future, going against a narrative from the defense that she\u2019d left on her own and hadn\u2019t been murdered.<\/p>\n
The first witness was a former co-worker of Maya\u2019s, Claudia Julao, who described Maya as a mentor and friend. By late 2020, Julao said she\u2019d left the world of federal contract oversight work and transitioned to a career in financial planning.<\/p>\n
Julao said she\u2019d spoken with Maya about her desire for estate planning. She said Maya told her, \u201cshe wanted to make sure that, \u2019God forbid anything happens to me, that my children are taken care of.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019d get that information and reach out after the new year. She said that never happened.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
That photoshoot never took place, and Camacho said she never heard from Maya again.<\/p>\n
Judge allows Larry\u2019s family members to observe the trial<\/p>\n
Prior to today, Judge Camarena had ruled that Larry\u2019s mother, father, and aunt wouldn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
So, with the defense also not planning to call them, the judge decided they could attend the remainder of the trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The twelfth day of testimony in the murder trial of Larry Millete saw investigator James Rhoades take to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[70302,64525,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-352664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-larry-millete","tag-maya-millete","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}