{"id":381353,"date":"2026-06-30T23:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T23:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/381353\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T23:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T23:28:10","slug":"prosecution-rests-its-case-in-larry-milletes-murder-trial-nbc-7-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/381353\/","title":{"rendered":"Prosecution rests its case in Larry Millete\u2019s murder trial \u2013 NBC 7 San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"

On day 25 of testimony in Larry Millete\u2019s murder trial, the prosecution rested its case. In a surprise, the judge revealed the defense wouldn\u2019t call any witnesses until tomorrow, and said the defense expected that testimony to only last a single day.<\/p>\n

Larry is accused of killing his wife Maya in 2021 and then disposing of her body, which has never been found. Larry has proclaimed his innocence since she vanished more than five years ago from their home in Chula Vista\u2019s San Miguel Ranch neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Before resting her case, deputy district attorney Christy Bowles called two witnesses to the stand \u2013 both who also work within her office. The first witness, Peter Villaver, actually returned to the stand after testifying much earlier in the trial.<\/p>\n

In his first appearance, Villaver spoke at length about cell tower activations, which he said helped investigators determine where people were located during significant time periods connected to the case. Today, he went into detail about that timeline.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"An<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tNBC 7NBC 7<\/p>\n

An undated picture of Larry & Maya Millete.<\/p>\n

With the help of a digital presentation, Villaver went over all the significant events between January 5 and January 9, 2021. Maya was last seen alive on January 7.<\/p>\n

Villaver used cell tower location data, surveillance camera footage, call and text messages, social media messages, and emails to go through every event that led up to Maya\u2019s disappearance and Larry\u2019s actions afterward.<\/p>\n

Most of what was shown wasn\u2019t new to the jury, as it had been presented during the testimony of roughly 60 other witnesses. But this format brought it all together in an apparent attempt by the prosecution to prove their case. That included:<\/p>\n

Maya\u2019s determination to leave Larry and contact divorce attorneys<\/p>\n

Larry\u2019s messages to spellcasters which appeared to grow more desperate<\/p>\n

The final moment Maya was last seen alive and her last communications\u00a0<\/p>\n

The sudden termination of both Maya and Larry\u2019s cell phone connectivity<\/p>\n

The 12-hour time period where Larry\u2019s whereabouts were unknown<\/p>\n

The frantic efforts by his own family members to make contact during this period<\/p>\n

Larry\u2019s return and the concerned messages from Maya\u2019s family who couldn\u2019t reach her<\/p>\n

Among the new information Villaver revealed was evidence that Larry\u2019s family tried contacting him 25 times on January 8. Villaver also revealed one of Larry\u2019s final messages before his phone went dark: a text message to his young daughters with information about the family\u2019s financial portfolio.<\/p>\n

During cross-examination, Colby Ryan, one of Larry\u2019s defense attorneys, asked Villaver if his timeline included every single communication event from family and friends, to which he replied, \u201cNo.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Evidence about the media coverage of Maya\u2019s disappearance<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A Facebook page was created for any information regarding Millete’s disappearance.<\/p>\n

The final witness for the prosecution was Justin Bostic, an investigator with the district attorney\u2019s office. His testimony focuses solely on the massive media coverage and social media response to Maya\u2019s disappearance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bostic said that in 2022, a Google search of the name of Maya Millete returned more than 2.2 million results on social media and news websites. Bostic testified about several exhibits, which showed television or internet screenshots from Dateline, 48 Hours, Dr. Phil, Nancy Grace, Court TV, and several local news stations in San Diego.<\/p>\n

Exhibits were also shown of efforts online by the community to locate Maya. That included showing screenshots from the \u201cHelp Find Maya\u201d Facebook group. Bostic said it helped organize hundreds of events where volunteers hiked through desert and mountain areas to locate her body.<\/p>\n

Though it was not specifically stated, testimony seemed to indicate that despite the widespread publicity from the case, there has never been any confirmed sighting of Maya after January 7, 2021.<\/p>\n

The defense\u2019s cross examination of Bostic went quickly, with Ryan asking Bostic if he went through all 2.2 million search results. The investigator said he did not, with the defense implying that many of those results likely didn\u2019t relate to Maya, but other missing women.<\/p>\n

Defense to begin presenting its case tomorrow<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Defense<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tNBC 7NBC 7<\/p>\n

Defense attorney Liann Sabatini speaks during a status hearing for Larry Millete on January 8, 2024.<\/p>\n

After the prosecution rested, Judge Enrique Camarena revealed that the defense wouldn\u2019t be calling any witness until the next morning. Not only that, but he revealed that attorneys told him that they expected to finish that on the same day.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s far shorter than the five days the judge had previously said the defense expected testimony from its witnesses to last. It\u2019s also unclear who the defense will call, or if that will include Larry Millete.<\/p>\n

The judge also revealed a firmer timeline for the rest of the trial. After the defense potentially rests on Wednesday, the judge said the court would be in recess until the following Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Judge Camarena said the court needed about two days to catalogue and renumber all the exhibits that had been presented, in order to provide them for jury deliberations. He said the court has roughly 1,300 exhibits in this case.<\/p>\n

If the proceedings stick to this time table, the jury will receive their final instructions and hear closing arguments on Tuesday. That\u2019s when deliberations could begin as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On day 25 of testimony in Larry Millete\u2019s murder trial, the prosecution rested its case. In a surprise,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64525,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-381353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","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\/381353","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=381353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}