{"id":392058,"date":"2026-07-09T14:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T14:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/392058\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T14:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T14:38:13","slug":"jury-begins-deliberating-in-murder-case-of-missing-chula-vista-mother-maya-millete-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/392058\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury begins deliberating in murder case of missing Chula Vista mother \u2018Maya\u2019 Millete \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHULA VISTAFor more than five years, the story of Chula Vista mother May \u201cMaya\u201d Millete\u2019s disappearance and her alleged murder<\/a>, supposedly at the hands of her jilted husband, had been told by May\u2019s family members and prosecutors \u2014 rarely, if ever, had Larry Millete\u2019s version of the story been told.<\/p>\n

That changed Wednesday during defense closing arguments in Larry Millete\u2019s murder trial<\/a> at the Chula Vista Superior Court. For the first time publicly, one of his attorneys recounted his version of events regarding the couple\u2019s rocky final year of marriage and the reasons behind some of his suspicious actions around the time his wife went missing in January 2021.<\/p>\n

A prosecutor gave her closing argument<\/a> in the case Tuesday and then rebutted the defense argument early Wednesday afternoon. Around 3:30 p.m., following a seven-week trial with more than 60 witnesses, the 12 members of the jury finally began deliberating the case.<\/p>\n

\"LarryLarry Millete sits in San Diego Superior Court during a preliminary hearing on Jan. 11, 2023. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ U-T file)<\/p>\n

Millete, 44, is charged with first-degree murder, though the jurors have the option of convicting him on lesser murder or manslaughter charges.<\/p>\n

He is accused of killing May, who was 39 when she was last seen or heard from on Jan. 7, 2021. Prosecutors allege that Millete likely killed his wife and the mother of his three children by poisoning her with hemlock<\/a>\u00a0on the same day that she called a divorce law firm and scheduled an appointment. Prosecutors also allege that Millete then disposed of May\u2019s body, which has never been found<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The prosecution case is based on circumstantial evidence about the couple\u2019s failing marriage, Millete\u2019s alleged desire to harm his wife and his suspicious conduct after she went missing. Deputy District Attorney Christy Bowles went through a long list of that evidence during her rebuttal Wednesday, telling the jury it all pointed to Millete as the only person with the motive and opportunity to kill his wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are too many coincidences,\u201d Bowles said. \u201cHe is either the unluckiest person in the world, or he is guilty of murder.\u201d<\/p>\n

But defense attorney Liann Sabatini, who dismissed the poison theory as \u201csilly,\u201d argued that Bowles had failed to prove the murder charge beyond a reasonable doubt. She painted a different picture of Millete for jurors during her closing argument.<\/p>\n

Rather than being the abusive, manipulative and ultimately homicidal husband that prosecutors alleged, Sabatini described Millete as a tragic figure who was being emotionally and psychologically abused and gaslit by his cheating wife<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an oversharing, vulnerable, kind of tragic guy, at least in 2020,\u201d Sabatini told jurors. She said May had embarrassed Millete by carrying on an affair for a year while continuously lying about it. \u201cHis dignity was stripped from him, his pride taken. This man was broken down.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, Sabatini argued, that didn\u2019t make him a murderer. Instead, she told the jury, his actions showed that he loved and had compassion for his wife. She argued that Millete didn\u2019t act out violently when he caught May with her lover, and that he took her to a doctor when she had medical complications after aborting an extramarital pregnancy.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors have alleged that Millete physically abused May, pointing to her past journal entries. Sabatini told the jury there was no evidence, such as May disclosing it to friends or her therapist.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have any actual evidence of prior domestic violence,\u201d Sabatini said. \u201cThat is all talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

But even as she provided some answers about Millete\u2019s thoughts and actions \u2014 or at least tried to cast reasonable doubt upon the prosecution\u2019s theories \u2014 Sabatini left unanswered one of the case\u2019s biggest mysteries.<\/p>\n

On the day after his wife was last seen alive, why did Millete turn off his phone, something he rarely did for more than a few minutes, and leave in the family\u2019s SUV for more than 11 hours to an unknown location?<\/p>\n

\"AA button and candles on display at a prayer vigil for May Millete in honor of the first anniversary of her disappearance at Chula Vista Community Park on Jan. 8, 2022. (Sandy Huffaker \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Sabatini suggested to the jury there were possible explanations for that aberrant behavior without settling on a specific reason.<\/p>\n

But, she argued to the jury, the prosecution had the burden to prove Millete was disposing of his wife\u2019s body that day, and they failed to do that beyond a reasonable doubt, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the defense\u2019s job to come up with these scenarios for you; it is their job to prove guilt,\u201d Sabatini told the jury. \u201c\u2026 They\u2019re accusing him of pulling it off almost perfectly while being messy everywhere else. How does that messy, emotional person do something so clinical? It defies logic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabatini ended by telling the jury the trial was supposed to be a search for the truth, not the pursuit of a conviction. She said prosecutors had left too many gaps in their case, hoping jurors would jump to conclusions.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not let them shift their burden to you,\u201d she said. \u201cThey have to prove it. The only thing they\u2019ve proven that Larry is guilty of is being a human being.\u201d<\/p>\n

The jurors deliberated for about an hour Wednesday before heading home without reaching a verdict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHULA VISTAFor more than five years, the story of Chula Vista mother May \u201cMaya\u201d Millete\u2019s disappearance and her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,9974,1312,138,181,23,100,74,84,76,75,3055,1696],"class_list":["post-392058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-california","tag-chula-vista","tag-courts","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-south-county","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392058","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=392058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}