Prosecutor says poison, spellcasters and obsession led to Maya Millete’s murder

CHULA VISTA, Calif. (CN) — The San Diego County courtroom was packed to overflow capacity on Tuesday morning as family members, media and attorneys filled the overflow room for the closing arguments after the six-week trial of Larry Millete, who is accused of murdering his wife in 2021.

San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Christy Bowles portrayed Millete, 44, as a man hell-bent on preventing his wife, Maya Millete, then 39, from leaving him — even if it meant killing her.

“Maya Millete would not, could not, and did not leave her children on Jan. 7, 2021,” Bowles told jurors Tuesday during closing arguments. “Do you think she would have left her house willingly? To think she would have walked away from her home on Jan. 7, 2021, and left her three children whose health and well-being she spent her life concerned about is not only unreasonable; it is unfathomable, and it is impossible.”

Throughout her final statements to jurors, Bowles described the unusual circumstances surrounding May’s disappearance that day. Her unpacked bags. Her final messages with friends and family. Her recent conversations with divorce attorneys. Her plans for her daughter’s birthday that coming weekend. Her husband’s increasingly paranoid behavior. His constant calling. His attempts to control and surveil her. His attempts to regain her affection through repeated magic spells. His seemingly casual indifference to her family’s concern over her disappearance. His research into a deadly neurotoxin that was later discovered in a vial at their residence.

All of these things, Bowles said, pointed to circumstantial evidence that Larry Millete was responsible for the murder of his wife. Her body has not been found to this day.

The prosecution began closing statements to jurors at 11 a.m. and continued through the end of the day, going into minutiae of the couple’s marriage as it apparently dissolved toward the end of 2020.

Things took a dramatic turn that summer after Larry Millete apparently found his wife in a car with another man she was having an affair with. Maya Millete was not living in the couple’s home in Chula Vista, California, at the time, but was brought back by her husband after he discovered the two together, Bowles said.

“She is flawed. There is no realm where that is excused, except to say in that experience that she had, it very likely exposed her to a relationship with a man who put her care and concern to the forefront, as opposed to someone who only cared about their own selfish and narcissistic goals,” Bowles said as she pointed to Larry Millete.

That summer, Millete, now living back at home, was under her husband’s control and surveillance, Bowles said. On Aug. 12, she found her daughter’s cellphone in her car and used it to make a phone call to a friend while hiding in a room in her house as Larry Millete tried to break down the door. Larry Millete, who monitored all of her communications, called her family members to help calm her down.

But it was a turning point for Maya Millete, according to Bowles. She was committed to getting a divorce.

“He isolated her. He tracked her. He used her fear of losing her children against her. And by the end of 2020, she summoned the courage to divorce the defendant and leave the marriage,” the prosecuting attorney said. “And what did he do? He paid strangers to try to control her. He paid them to punish her and injure her. He ultimately begged them to prevent her from leaving the house. To stop her from leaving the residence, and then she disappeared from the face of this Earth.”

Bowles described a series of online messages that Larry Millete exchanged with spellcasters beginning in October in an effort to win back his wife, but also to hurt or incapacitate her.

“I need her will to be broken. Make her my sex slave. I’d like to focus on dominating her and for her to obey me. We need her broken to the lowest of the low,” Bowles read the messages to the jurors. “Punish her until she becomes humble.”

Some of the spells were also directed toward her affair partner, who Bowles said Larry Millete wanted dead.

“Everything he did had a single purpose,” she said. “Control.”

Despite months of increasingly frantic requests for spells by Larry Millete, Maya Millete remained determined to follow through with the divorce. She was in communication with a divorce attorney but had scheduled to meet with them after her daughter’s 11th birthday in Big Bear, California, during the weekend of Jan. 9-10.

Jan. 7 was the last time Maya Millete was seen entering her home alive, Bowles said.

At about 6 a.m. that morning, Larry Millete moved their black Lexus SUV from the street parking into the garage. At about 6:45 a.m., Larry Millete’s phone was powered off, according to digital forensic evidence, and then the SUV left the couple’s residence for 12 hours that are unaccounted for. The vehicle also drove 444 miles that were also unaccounted for, Bowles said.

“Maya Millete is dead, and the defendant is the one who killed her,” she told the jurors. “The morning of Jan. 8, he loaded her body into the SUV, he drove to a remote location and disposed of her body. His plan was so well conceived and planned out that, to this day, despite all efforts, her body has not been found.”

Much of the prosecuting attorney’s arguments also focused on the discovery of a vial that contained coniine, a toxin found in poison hemlock. According to Bowles, digital forensics also showed Larry Millete researched poison hemlock and that his wife suspected he was poisoning her as early as July 15, 2020.

Admittedly, the prosecuting attorney said she did not know what happened in the house the last day Maya Millete was seen. Despite this, she said there is a mountain of evidence to suggest her husband is responsible for her disappearance and murder.

“There is no evidence that Maya Millete is alive,” she told jurors. “You know what he did. You know why he did it. You just don’t know how. The law does not reward a murderer for successfully hiding a body.”

Jurors were instructed by presiding Superior Court Judge Enrique Camarena that they do not have to agree on how Maya Millete was killed, only that Larry Millete was guilty of murder in either first- or second-degree murder or, alternatively, voluntary or involuntary manslaughter.

Larry Millete’s defense attorneys have maintained his wife could still be alive and that, ultimately, there is not enough evidence connecting him to her death.

Defense attorneys Colby Ryan and Liann Sabatini filed a motion for acquittal, which attorneys argued over before jury instructions were read. They argued the evidence in the case was speculative, considering there is no concrete evidence of Maya Millete’s death.

Camarena disagreed.

Larry Millete’s attorneys will make their closing arguments Wednesday.