CHULA VISTA (KGTV) — NOTE: This page will be updated throughout the day.
3:15 p.m. — The defense in the Larry Millete murder trial rested its case Wednesday after calling only 3 witnesses and presenting its entire case in less than 3 hours.
Millete will not take the stand in his own defense.
The trial is moving well ahead of schedule; it was initially expected to last three months. Court will be dark Thursday, Friday and Monday. Closing statements are set to begin Tuesday.
The case is expected to be turned over to the jury sometime next week.
Before resting their case, the defense finished with their private investigator on the stand. In the afternoon, Riley Mallory testified about a drainage ditch trail behind the Millete home. He said he walked the trail, took photographs, and that it wasn't an area with cameras or lights. He testified that someone could have jumped the back fence of the Millete backyard, or a gate along the trail that led to a road and eventually an abandoned golf course.
Throughout much of the trial, the defense has argued Maya could have willingly walked away from her home on Paseo Los Gatos.
The prosecution pointed out that the private investigator did not visit the Millete neighborhood until 3 years after Maya went missing. Prosecutor Bowles argued Mallory did not know if the cameras in the neighborhood had been positioned differently back in 2021 and that he didn't know what the foliage looked like on the trail back when Maya disappeared. Mallory testified that he did not finish his report on the case until a week or two ago.
12:30 p.m. — A private investigator for the defense took the stand late Wednesday morning.
Riley Mallory runs his own business called Mallory Investigations. He previously worked as an investigator for the San Diego County Public Defender’s Office.
Mallory said he first got involved in the Millete case in October 2023 when Larry's attorneys contacted him.
He told jurors his investigation included reviewing police reports, pictures and surveillance videos, as well as conducting his own canvass of the Millete neighborhood.
Before the lunch break, Mallory testified about pages of exhibits he took or analyzed in relation to the case. The exhibits consisted of maps, pictures of surveillance cameras and screen grabs of footage from those cameras near the Millete home.
11 a.m. — The prosecution has rested its case against Larry Millete. On Wednesday, the defense began its case.
Before the jury was present, the prosecution and defense argued the qualifications of search and rescue K-9s that searched the Millete home a couple of weeks after Maya Millete disappeared.
Stacy Agan is a search and rescue volunteer with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office. She’s been a dog handler since 1994.
She testified for about an hour without the jury present, so the judge could hear her testimony and rule on what would be allowed before the jurors.
Agan said her K-9, Kona, is certified with the local sheriff’s team and meets California's Office of Emergency Services guidelines for search and rescue. Kona is trained in trailing and human remains detection.
Agan said on the stand that she and Kona searched the Millete home and the family’s Lexus on Jan. 23, 2021. During questioning by defense attorney Colby Ryan, she said they were requested to search the residence and that Kona did not alert to any “hits” at the home or in the vehicle.
However, Agan confirmed that her dog is not trained in residual scent when questioned by Deputy District Attorney Christy Bowles. That's odor left behind after something’s been removed.
While Ryan tried to emphasize there was no evidence of a body being in the Millete home, Bowles countered that by saying the search dog went beyond what it’s trained to do.
“Were you asked to do something out of the scope of your dog’s qualification?” Bowles asked.
“Yes,” Agan responded. She said her dog is also not trained to search vehicles and was hesitant initially to help with the search warrant at the Millete home because “our concern is we would be asked to do something out of the scope of the dog’s training.”
Judge Enrique Camarena allowed the witness but limited the scope of questioning to the search of the house only, which visibly frustrated Ryan.
There were questions about a body’s decomposition process, and the judge said a separate expert would need to testify to that, if it were to be allowed before the jurors.
During testimony in front of the jury, Agan said her K-9 searched specifically for a deceased body at the home and did not find one.
Her husband, Stephen Agan, is also a search-and-rescue volunteer. He reiterated that his K-9 did not find a body at the home during the search on Jan. 23, 2021. A search he says was conducted separately from his wife's search with her K-9.
Stephen Agan echoed his wife's testimony, saying his dog is not trained in residual scent and is only trained for trailing and human remains detection.
