CHULA VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) — NOTE: This page will be updated throughout the day.
4:00 p.m. — Chula Vista Police detective Lorenzo Ruiz took the stand late Tuesday afternoon.
He testified about his efforts to try and find any sign of Maya after she was reported missing.
Detective Ruiz says he reached out to places like Navy Federal, where Maya Millete banked, to see if there was any activity on her credit card. He says there was no financial activity, except for auto payments scheduled to the account.
He says he also reached out to her cell phone provider to try and find cell phone pings, to Uber to see if she’d taken any rides, and to Customs and Border Protection to see if she’d crossed into Mexico. Detective Ruiz testified that non of these efforts resulted in finding Maya.
Ruiz says he also analyzed surveillance footage from neighbors near the Millete home. He says none of the footage he analyzed ever showed Maya leaving the home after January 7th, 2021.
The detective also testified about Google searches found on a laptop he believed belonged to Maya Millete. He testified that the searches included things like “physical abuse manifesting years after marriage” and information about separation and divorce.
3:00 p.m. — After Voight, another digital evidence witness took the stand. He gave very specific, technical testimony about how he processed digital evidence related to the case.
In the afternoon, the attorneys and the judge spoke on the record, but without the jury present. The defense objected to several pieces of evidence that prosecutors planned to present to the jury.
Defense attorney Liann Sabatini argued that during motions in limine, Judge Enrique Camarena hadn’t allowed alleged behavior by both Maya and Larry on dating websites, including Maya’s behavior on Tinder and Larry's on the Ashley Madison website.
The judge ruled to allow some evidence, with certain items redacted, but the evidence wasn’t displayed in court. It will be displayed at a future time. The jury was allowed back into the courtroom at 3:50 p.m.
2:00 p.m. — Before breaking for lunch, the prosecution continued showing the jurors a number of pictures Garber took during his search warrants. They included images of seized electronics, pictures inside of the primary bedroom of the Millete home, and pictures of Larry’s Lexus and Maya’s jeep.
Garber testified that when testing the car for evidence, he observed possible blood evidence, but also said that he found no evidence of a significant crime scene.
During cross-examination, Garber was questioned about dozens of pictures he took during the search warrant of the Millete home. Garber told the defense that the possible blood evidence could also be things like urine, sweat, or other bodily fluids.
Garber was also present during the execution of a search warrant at Larry's office. He testified that he photographed and saw multiple pictures of Maya Millete and her children displayed at Larry’s desk and cubicle.
The prosecution then called Amy Voight to the stand, a NCIS digital forensic examiner. She said she was in charge of decrypting Maya Millete's work laptop, cloning and transferring its contents to a hard drive, and turning it over to the Chula Vista Police Department.
10:18 a.m. — The prosecution called its first witness of the day, former Chula Vista police forensic specialist David Garber.
Garber, who now teaches at a police college in Canada, testified about the photos he took of the Millette home during the execution of a search warrant on Jan. 23, 2021.
In one of the more memorable photos shown to the jury, Garber pointed to a sad face drawn in the dust atop of the piano. Also written on top of the piano was the word, “momy”—a misspelled version of the word “mommy.”
He did not say who drew the picture or wrote the word.
One of the photos Garber took showed the search history from a computer in one of the children’s rooms dated Thursday, December 3.
Some of the search phrases included “how to mentally torture someone with words” and “psychological torture.”
He showed the jury a letter that Maya wrote to Larry dated Aug. 29, 2020. In it, she wrote that she is not herself 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," Maya wrote in a handwritten letter. "I want to be happy and happy is not with you."
She asked Larry to let her find her peace.
Judge Camarena reminded the jury that the letter is hearsay, but he has allowed it to be shown during the trial.
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10:05 a.m — Day 5 of the Larry Millete murder trial began with the cross-examination of the Chula Vista police officer who responded to a missing person’s report at the Millete home.
Homicide detective Ryan Culver was a patrol officer in 2021. He testified that on the night of Jan. 9, 2021, he went to the Millete home in Chula Vista to investigate a missing person’s report. The missing person was Maya Millete, Larry’s wife.
Larry, who was wearing a charcoal sweater with a light-colored collared shirt on Tuesday, is on trial for the murder of Maya. He has denied having anything to do with her disappearance.
Maya’s body has never been found.
Larry’s defense attorney pointed out that Larry voluntarily let police inside their home to search it. Maya’s sister and brother-in-law, Maricris and Richard Drouaillet, were also at the home. Larry and Maya’s three children were sleeping at the time.
Defense attorney Colby Ryan asked Culver if he found any evidence of foul play, in which he responded that he did not.
