CHULA VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) — NOTE: This page will be updated throughout the day.
3:30 pm. — Rhoades' testimony continued after the lunch recess.
His testimony focused on digital communications and internet search records that investigators say connect Larry Millete to an anonymous whistleblower email account used to contact Southwest Regional Maintenance Center officials.
According to records obtained through a search warrant, the whistleblower email account was created in March of 2020.
Rhoades testified that he verified Larry Millete was the account user, identifying him as the whistleblower through various avenues, such as his misspelling of the acronym for SWRMC and Google searches found on the account that tied back to Larry.
Rhoades says the searches tied to the whistleblower account, including searches for "how much space does my wife need," "how can you tell if wife had sex with another guy," and "lie detector test San Diego."
He says the user of the account also searched "hypnosis," "hypnotize while you sleep," "wife is planning life without me," and "losing my wife."
The search history also included "hemlock flower" and "conium," and Rhoades said the user later visited an article on how to tell the difference between poison hemlock and Queen Anne's lace. Other searches included "painless death," "fatal amount of sleeping pills," "carbon monoxide death," and "how to confuse iPhone Find My app."
In April 2020, the account searched "spousal support California," "wife wants separation," "oxytocin pills," "my wife doesn't trust me," "shot in the heart instant death," and "wife doesn't want to be intimate anymore."
During cross-examination, the defense questioned Rhoades about his education and expertise in analyzing phone downloads, noting that he's not a certified digital forensic expert.
In their line of questioning, Rhoades testified that he was unable to confirm who was actually doing the Google searches, but reiterated that the information came from the search warrant tied to the whistleblower account, which he tied back to Larry.
12:20 p.m. — Rhoades also testified about cell phone analysis from Larry Millete's phone download. According to his testimony, Larry's phone had no phone data for roughly 12 hours the day after Maya disappeared.
Rhoades said that, as a result of his analysis, he determined the phone was intentionally turned off on the morning of January 8th, 2021, while it still had 87% charge.
He says the phone was off that day from 6:35 a.m. and wasn't turned back on until 6:34 p.m.
Maya was last seen on January 7th, 2021.
Rhoades testified that he analyzed historical records of the phone to see if the activity was common or happened regularly, but said his analysis showed this activity was "an outlier."
11:45 a.m. — A district attorney investigator returned to the stand, going through the spells that he said Larry bought from multiple spellcasters in the days leading up to Maya Millete's disappearance.
James Rhoades said Larry asked for spells where he could get Maya to dress more modestly in public, make her subservient to him, and banish her friends and her phone.
Rhoades testified that in one spell request, Larry said that Maya cheated on him, had an abortion and that he’s “the one being treated like dirt.”
Larry, wearing salmon-colored pants and a maroon sweater with a collared shirt, stared straight ahead during testimony—as he’s done every day since the trial began.
Rhoades went over numerous pages of spell and hex requests to various spellcasters, with at least one username listing “black magic" in the title.
During his testimony, some of the people in the gallery sighed and shook their heads.
Rhoades said in one instance, Larry messaged a spellcaster to let that person know they were in the desert. “Can you hex to have her hurt enough so she will have to depend on me and need my help?” he wrote. He requested an accident or a broken bone.
The spell requests were from September through December 2020, according to Rhoades.
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10:30 a.m. — As Maya Millete planned to leave her marriage, a close friend testified Maya was worried about her children.
Former co-worker Kristeen Timmers was back on the stand Thursday, saying that she and Maya’s sisters were willing to help her financially if she needed it for the divorce. “I just felt awful for her,” Timmers testified, adding that Maya never asked her for help.
Timmers said it was evident in 2020, that there was tension between Larry Millete and Maya.
Larry is currently facing murder charges in connection his wife’s disappearance. Maya’s body has never been found. Larry has been in custody since his arrest in Oct. 2021.
Timmers said that toward the end of 2020, the two were “definitely not loving.”
In a group chat on Jan. 7, 20201, Timmers testified that Maya told her and a few other friends that she had an argument with Larry and that he wanted 100% custody of the children. She also said Larry wanted the house and Maya told him to buy her out.
That was the last day anyone saw Maya alive.
The last message among her friends was about the children, also on Jan. 7, 2021, when Maya said that she was worried about them.
Timmers testified that she had future plans with Maya, including celebrating her 40th birthday by hiking the Grand Canyon. She said there was no indication she would have ever voluntarily left her children.
During a brief cross-examination, Larry’s defense attorney asked if Timmers ever saw Larry get physically violent with Maya or the children. Timmers responded no.
She said that Maya told her about the accusations of the affair with another co-worker, but Maya said it wasn’t true.
