What to Know
- May "Maya" Millete, a Chula Vista mother of three, was last seen alive on Jan. 7, 2021
- In October 2021, police arrested her husband, Larry Millete on a first-degree murder charge
- No body has ever been recovered
The preliminary trial for Larry Millete, a South Bay man accused of murdering his wife, May, with whom he has three young children, continued Thursday in Dept. 2021 in San Diego’s downtown superior court building.
May was last seen on January 2021 in the couple’s Chula Vista home. Despite extensive searching, neither she nor her body was ever located.
Thursday’s hearing re-convened following the first day of the testimony when David Garber, a Chula Vista Police forensic specialist, said detectives discovered evidence of blood in the master bathroom of the family’s home while searching it in January of 2021. While being cross-examined by Defense Attorney Bonita Martinez, Garber was asked if detectives found any evidence of blood splatter in the house.
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“In the main bedroom bathroom, on one of the vanities there appeared to be reddish brown stains that were less than one millimeter in size,” Garber said. “Those stains were tested using a presumptive blood test. And that test came back positive.”
On Thursday, court watchers and personnel took their places on a relatively sunny day shortly after 9 a.m., but it was not long before the proceedings turned dark when Garber testified regarding a photograph he had taken of a page found in a notebook in the master bedroom.
Local
Dear Larry,
You are right. I am not myself anymore. I've turned into this bitter, angry person who is careless with her words. But that's what our marriage has turned me into, and I hate it. I hate that you get me so angry all the time and you speak so righteous while I speak so bitterly.
You want to keep trying too, but each time I'm outside the house and not within your view, we are fighting. It is unhealthy. It's toxic. We need to change, but with the kids in mind, I want to be happy, and happy is not with you. We cannot be doing the same thing expecting the same results.
I've been gone mentally and emotionally for a very long time which you failed to notice until I found the strength to initiate physically leaving.
I read this and I thought maybe you consider it.
"The EGO says once everything falls into place, I'll find peace. The spirit says find peace and everything will fall into place."
Let me find my peace; I cannot find it with you.
Maya.
Garber’s time on the stand was relatively brief, and throughout this testimony and the rest of the day, Larry Millete remained silent, wearing a face mask, his hair in a tight bun at the back of his head.
At 9:50 a.m., May’s sister Maricris Drouaillet took the witness chair, which she would occupy for the balance of the day and likely into Friday. Dressed in a black pantsuit and peach blouse, she remained composed throughout her testimony, reliving the events of the past two decades, focusing mostly on 2020, the year the couple’s marriage soured, permanently, according to Drouaillet.
Under questioning from prosecutor Christy Bowles, Drouaillet discussed family history, going back to her childhood when the family lived in the Philippines, then relocated to Hawaii, where May and Larry, a pair of 17-year-olds, met working at McDonald's, marrying the following year. Not long after, Larry joined the Navy, and May joined him in Virginia, then, eventually, much of the family ended up in California.
The now large family — including as many as 17 young cousins — reunited regularly, often for birthday celebrations but for barbecues as well. When the pandemic hit in March 2020, the family would often travel out to the California desert, where they could get together in the outdoors. There were trips to Lake Havasu, Glamis, Lake Elsinore and elsewhere, with the family riding recreation vehicles, camping and sharing campfires.
Drouaillet testified that the relationship between Larry and May grew rockier as the year progressed, culminating in a trip just before New Year’s Eve to Glamis, when Larry and May were again at odds, often regarding the driving of a new Jeep that May told Maricris was her vehicle, which Maricris described as May’s dream car. Despite that, Larry took the driver’s seat much of the weekend, with May refusing to ride with him.
“They seemed to be fighting a lot at that time,” Maricris testified.
Then, late in the trip, May was in Maricris’ RV with other family members.
“She said, ‘Get ready, I’m gonna file for divorce, and it’s gonna be messy,’ ” Maricris testified. “It’s gonna be a messy divorce,’ ”
May also told Maricris around that time that she had no control of the family finances, so Maricris said, she advised her to think about the separation and square away her finances first, but May said she wasn’t going to wait.
Later, May asked Maricris for help paying for her divorce legal expenses and then dropped a bombshell.
“She said, ‘If something happens to me, it’s gonna be Larry,’ ” Maricris testified.
Days later, in a Facebook Messenger group, Maricris said, May again asked her and their sister Jane for help with legal expenses.
“I need to borrow 10K for divorce attorney… Can I pawn you guys my Rolexes? Also can you take some of my LVs.. the ones he won’t notice as missing or not being declared?” May texted, referring to her Louis Vuitton purses.
Unknown to her, Maricris told the court, the last time she would communicate with May was on the day of that text, Jan. 3, 2021.
Later that week, Maricris and the rest of her family became aware they had not communicated with May. The last anybody in the family heard from her was on Jan. 7, and, looking back, they became aware that the messages she was sent on Facebook had never been viewed. On Jan. 9, May and Maricris’ father told Maricris that he had visited Larry and May’s home and she wasn’t there.
Maricris testified that she and her husband, Richard, discussed the situation and left their home in Morena Valley, Calif., arriving between 7-8 p.m. on Jan. 9 at Larry and May’s Chula Vista home. When they arrived, they found the home to be “messy,” in Maricris’ words, which was surprising because it was usually very tidy, she told the court.
Larry told Maricris and Richard that he had last seen May in the morning and that he believed she was hiking at a nearby park. He also allegedly told them he and May had a fight on the night of Jan. 7 and that she might be out hiking to blow off some steam. The argument was about a work relationship she had with someone. In the past, Maricris said, Larry had raised the issue of May having and affair, a subject that he had brought up repeatedly.
But Maricris did not believe she was having an affair.
Maricris called May’s friends for several hours, to no avail, and finally called the police to report a missing person. A dispatcher told her, however, that she had to call hospitals, the morgue and elsewhere first, which she did.
Finally, several hours later, Maricris told the court, she called back and reported a missing person, and this time, Chula Vista police sent officers to the home in the 2400 block of Paseo Los Gatos.
When the three officers arrived around 1 or 2 a.m. — Maricris said she wasn’t sure of the time — she told them there had been no communication with May and that the family couldn’t find her. And she told them something else.
“I kind of whispered that something was wrong, something might have happened to her,” Maricris said.
Drouaillet also faced cross-examination by defense attorney Martinez for two hours in the afternoon, much of which covered the ground Bowles had gone over, but also inquiring about Maricris’ direct experience of the couple’s relationship, including when they were still young.
“Mari and Larry didn’t have kids yet,” Maricris said. “They had a regular relationship, but they were arguing too.”
Maricris also agreed that Larry in the past had been a caring partner in the relationship, describing the marriage as a “normal husband-wife relationship.”
Martinez also focused on the couple’s finances and accusations that Larry could be controlling, monitoring when May used her credit cards and, for example, calling constantly when she was on a trip to Parker, California, seemingly to verify her whereabouts.
“She would tell me that every time she uses her credit card, Larry would know how much it cost,” Maricris said.
Martinez also elicited testimony regarding other times during 2020 when the couple were visibly at odds, including during a trip around July 4 to Lake Havasu. While they argued, they would get into a vehicle and leave, then they would return, Maricris said, having seemingly worked things out and not displaying any signs that they had problems.
One possible explanation for the line of questioning could be to establish that while there was a history of disagreements in the relationship, specifically in the year prior to Maya’s disappearance, there was also a pattern of resolution.
Drouaillet is expected to retake the stand and continue to face cross-examination on Friday at 9 a.m., when the hearing resumes.
The Maya Millete Case: This is an entry in NBC 7's live blog coverage of the Larry Millete Hearing. To read other entries, CLICK HERE
