Overview
- A Chula Vista jury found Larry Millete guilty of first‑degree murder on Thursday after less than a day of deliberations in the trial over his wife Maya’s disappearance.
- Prosecutors built their case from surveillance and phone timelines, online searches for poisons, a vial that tested positive for coniine, journal entries and messages seeking ‘spell casters’ to show motive and opportunity.
- The defense highlighted the absence of a body, a crime scene, a murder weapon and eyewitnesses and offered alternative explanations such as voluntary disappearance or an affair.
- Millete faces up to 25 years to life in prison but will not be sentenced until a separate assault‑weapon charge is resolved and further court hearings set the schedule.
- Maya’s remains have not been found and her family continues efforts to locate her, underscoring that the conviction brings legal closure but not the physical answers her children and relatives seek.