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It is a trial that is 5 years in the making. Larry Millete is in court this week charged with killing [music] his
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39-year-old wife Maya, who was last seen in their Chula Vista, California home on
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January 7th, 2021. [music] 48 hours followed Maya's family, friends, and the community as they
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searched and searched for her. Yet, her body has still never been found. Meanwhile, prosecutors say that Larry
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had been paying people online to cast spells on his wife. Spells to first make her stay with him and then later to harm
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her. In opening statements, the prosecution said that Maya was having an affair. And
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according to emails Larry sent to spellcasters, the affair resulted in Maya getting pregnant.
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The prosecution says this revelation caused a huge fight between Larry and Maya in January of 2021, right around
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the time she went missing. Larry Millete has pleaded not guilty. I'm 48 Hours correspondent Anne Marie
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Green, and this is Case by Case. And today I'm being joined by Kelly Hessedal. She is a CBS 8 San Diego
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reporter. She has been following this story and was in court earlier this week. So, Kelly, thank you so much for
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making some time for us. >> Thank you for having me. >> So, let's just sort of start kind of in
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the beginning. Um, I want to talk about Maya or May as some people called her. What was her relationship with Larry
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like in the beginning? >> Maya and Larry met when they were working at a fast food restaurant. Um,
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Maya had actually immigrated to the United States from the Philippines with her family back in 1995,
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and she was just 13 years old. So, they actually got married when they were pretty young. Maya was 19 years old. I
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believe Larry was 18 years old. And they fell in love, got married, waited about 10 years until they had
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children. They ended up having three children, two girls and one boy. And Larry had enlisted in the Navy at
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one point, and so they had relocated from Hawaii to San Diego, and that's where they settled in a portion of San
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Diego called Chula Vista. They loved their children. Larry was an attentive father, according to family and friends.
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Maya has always been described as very bubbly, very outgoing, someone who loved the outdoors, loved
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being outside. And by all accounts, they had a a typical married life, but clearly things started to change. They
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started to unravel at some point. The prosecution said this week in opening statements, to really understand
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this story, you have to go back to 2020. Maya was confiding in her friends about the struggles in their marriage.
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She wasn't really confiding in her family quite yet about what was going on, but she was definitely letting her
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friends know that there were problems. She began an affair with a co-worker. According to prosecutors during opening
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statements, it started out as a friendship and then turned physical. >> Larry obviously was not
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doing well with this. He did not want a divorce. That was not an option for him.
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And he is reaching out to Maya's family. He's actually sort of the prosecution said that he was writing sort of notes
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to his sister-in-law trying to get her to help him keep the marriage together. But then he writes something sort of
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really curious in one of the notes. This is a according to the prosecution. And he writes, "I always say friends help
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you move. Real friends help you move dead bodies." And I've kind of heard this line before.
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Um and it could be sort of humorous, but considering now what has happened, it doesn't sound so funny.
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>> Right. And when the prosecutor said those words in court this week during opening statements, I mean, there's many
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reporters that are sitting in the courtroom and you could hear everybody's fingers tapping on the keyboard the
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moment that she said that because I think it really struck everybody as a line that really stood out.
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>> Right. And in fact, one of Maya's coworkers testified that she had said, Maya had said to her, "Listen, if
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anything happens to me, it was Larry." Um was there any talk of a legal separation or a divorce? Were they
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moving in that direction? I know Larry didn't want that, but I wondered if Maya had brought it up.
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>> Well, so there was a portion of time during 2020 when she actually moved in with her brother and her sister-in-law
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for several weeks. Police found a letter in the Millete home during one of the searches there
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that Maya had written to Larry basically saying, you know, this is unhealthy, this is toxic, I want to be happy
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and happy is not with you. She said, "Let me find my peace and and I cannot find it with you." But Larry, according
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to prosecutors, was desperate to keep her with him, to keep the marriage going. >> Yeah, I that note to me is about as
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direct as it gets. She wanted out. Um Well, Wednesday on the stand, Maya's sister, Mary Chris, testified that Larry
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had called her for advice about the relationship. And this happened in 2020. And then a little over a week before
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Maya disappeared, Maya had opened up to her siblings about wanting a divorce. >> And she testified that Maya was adamant
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about this. And this was actually just in the days leading up to when Maya disappeared that her family found out
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she was really set on this divorce and that she had said she wanted to pawn some of her luxury handbags including a
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Louis Vuitton purse at for $10,000 to help pay for a divorce attorney. >> Wow. Okay, that is interesting and all
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of this for the prosecution I presume, you know, points to motive. Um but at a as I understand it as well, there were
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some references to domestic violence in the arrest warrant. >> Yeah, in the arrest warrant there was a
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friend that had uh told investigators at one point that Larry had choked Maya to
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the point that she was unconscious. However, [music] the defense has said there's no evidence at all of domestic
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violence between the two. >> All right, so that brings us to the day that Maya disappears. This is January
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7th, 2021. This is the last time that anyone has seen Maya. Um Kelly, just walk us through
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what we know about that day. >> There was a receptionist from a law office that testified about noon on that
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date Maya made a call to that law office and said she wanted to get a divorce from her husband. Uh this receptionist
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Destiny Johnson testified that um Maya wanted to do the consultation virtually but Destiny had told her according to
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her testimony we really should do this in person but Maya was so afraid that Larry was
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going to find out she didn't want to. So, she ended up making an appointment for a week later and and partly that was
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also because that weekend they were going to be celebrating her daughter's 11th birthday up in Big Bear with the
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entire family and and she according to prosecutors really did not want to ruin that for her children or for the entire
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family. >> We know that her cell phone stops, I guess, pinging at around 1:25 in the
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morning, right? That night, she Maya is doing some sort of random Google searches, isn't she?
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>> That's right. So, what we know from January 7th, according to prosecutors, um
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there's surveillance video uh earlier in the day of her going out to get her Jeep
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washed. The children ask if they can come with. Around 4:43 that afternoon, uh there's surveillance video showing
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her returning home. And yes, at around 8:00 that night, there was a Google search. She Googled something about a
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motorcycle, according to prosecutors. There was also a message to her family. She had this group chat she was in with
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her family. And around that same time, she had messaged them talking about the sale of a trailer, uh buying some toys.
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They were planning ahead, according to prosecutors, for future trips as well as that Big Bear trip uh that they were
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going to be going on that weekend. >> So, for for Maya, it's by and large a regular day. What about Larry?
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>> So, on January 8th, we know from security footage he backed his Lexus SUV into the driveway early that morning,
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around 6:45 or so. And then there's also security footage of him leaving after that.
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As for where he went, he had told investigators, according to the prosecution, that he took his 4-year-old
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son to the beach. According to the prosecution, his phone was turned off that entire time. And when asked about
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that by Maya's family members, he just said, "You know, I kept it off for the entire day," but didn't explain why.
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>> So, obviously her family has become increasingly concerned. I mean, so what is her family doing?
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>> So, on January 8th, her brother says, "I've been trying to call her. I've I've
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her. I've been texting her, and she's not answering. Something is wrong. He messages or talks to Mary Chris, the
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older sister, according to prosecution, and says, "I don't know what to do." So, family went to check on her. Mary
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Chris drove down to San Diego to the Millet home, and she testified that Larry's demeanor was was normal. He
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acted like everything was just fine. Don't worry. Don't call police. Don't call investigators. And that is when my
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Mary Chris dialed 911. >> And so, that is when Maya is officially reported missing, right? When Mary Chris
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makes that 911 call. >> So, yes, it it kind of happened overnight because Mary Chris and her
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husband spent the night at the home. They were even out canvassing the neighborhood
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like into the early morning hours, according to her testimony, looking for her sister. And it was the next morning
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that they went out and even gathered some volunteers up and began looking for her.
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>> So, Kelly, let us talk about what I think is one of the wildest pieces of evidence in this case. Prosecutors said
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that Larry was paying people online to cast spells on his wife. He wanted to be able to
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control her. He wanted to, you know, make her fall back in love with him. >> Now, when law enforcement first came to
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the Millet house, they found spell books in the house during their first visit to
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the home. Not only do these emails to spell casters show that Larry wished harm on Maya, but the emails are also a
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window into what was going on within the relationship and the timeline. >> So, this has already come up this week,
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but I I actually want to refer back to the arrest warrant here, and these are all communications to these spell
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casters online. This is some of what he was saying, right? Please punish May and
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incapacitate her enough so that she can't leave the house. It's time to take the gloves off. Can you hex to have her
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hurt enough that she will have to depend on me and need my help. She's only nice
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to me when she needs me or sick. Thanks again. Maybe an accident or broken bone.
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And then on the day that Maya disappears he sends multiple emails to spell casters saying, I think she wants me to
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snap. >> It was almost like he was confiding, you know, his deepest, darkest uh secrets to
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them about what was going on in his marriage. He spent a lot of money on these spell casters and when we first
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found out about this, you know, 5 years ago, I mean, everybody's jaw dropped. It
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was something that we had just never seen before. But I will say one of the most telling
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things about the spell casters, according to the prosecution this contact he had with them the way
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that it changed after Maya disappeared. Prosecutors say was very apparent. At one point he had, according to them at
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least, said something along the lines of stop hexing May. And this was the day after she disappeared. And then
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the spell caster emails all sort of diverge into start punishing Jamie Laird, the man
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that she had been having an affair with. And there was no mention of Maya again after that.
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>> That is fascinating. So, can we talk a little bit more about that? >> One of the big moments of the trial this
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week was the prosecution speaking about one particular email that Larry sent to spell casters where he revealed that the
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co-worker Maya was allegedly having an affair with, uh Jamie Laird, had gotten Maya pregnant.
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>> Do we know if that's even true or if it was just something that Larry made up or
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that Larry believed to be true? >> At this point there has not been a doctor up on the witness stand. we have
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not seen any medical records uh proving that she was pregnant. Uh I do believe at one point during some of these emails
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with spell casters, he had talked about an abortion that Maya had had, but at this point in the trial we have not seen
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any proof of this. This is all just through emails that Larry is sending to these spell casters.
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>> So, I want to talk about something else that was discovered inside the Millete
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home, a vial. >> That was kind of a moment that we had not heard about up until now. This was a
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new piece of evidence. So, this vial was discovered inside the Millete home. It was a small vial with a little cap on
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it. The prosecution says they had the contents of that vial tested and it came back positive for the same chemical in
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poison hemlock. Now, the prosecution also said that there was a Google account that was traced back to Larry
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and that Google searches were recovered showing that he had searched for things like flower and hemlock, poisoning, what
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is the best poison for a fast death, those sorts of things. However, the defense has countered basically saying
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this wasn't what prosecution >> made it seem was making it out to be. >> Right. >> When investigators were first on this
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case and they visited the Millete house, they did not consider it a crime scene,
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right? They were investigating a missing person's case initially. >> Absolutely. And so, it wasn't for weeks
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later that they determined that an investigation needed to begin and at that point, I mean, this was a couple
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weeks after she had disappeared. >> Well, when 48 Hours first spoke to Maya's family, uh this is a few years
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back, they were really outspoken and kind of frustrated about the police response. Um I know the police released
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a statement in April of 2021 saying that they were keeping cards close to their chest because it was an active
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investigation. >> And the fact there was no body. So, I think for them, they still had the idea
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as well that it's possible she could potentially still be out there. But yeah, the family was very frustrated in
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the beginning and that's when they turned to the media. Mary Chris, the sister, did numerous interviews with the
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media trying to get her sister's story out there and trying to really put pressure on the police to really focus
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on this investigation. >> Yeah, and I mean, police did not formally search the Miliete house until
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January 23rd. It's more than 2 weeks after Maya disappeared. When they did, they seized two Glock handguns, a rifle,
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and a shotgun. Additionally, in May of 2021, police served Larry with a gun violence restraining order. Per the
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order, Larry was to surrender his firearms to law enforcement. He did not comply. And that meant that they could
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then get a search warrant for the house. They seized more weapons once they got into the house. Additional unregistered
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firearm as well, meaning that he, Larry, was also now in possession of an illegal
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firearm. Gave police a little more leverage. Based on all of this information, all that was uncovered in
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the investigation, law enforcement decided to move forward and arrest Larry. Um, when was he arrested?
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>> Larry was arrested in October of 2021. So, obviously, several months after Maya
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had disappeared. And the news conference that day is something I will never forget because Mary Chris, stood up
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there in front of all of these reporters. And actually, it made me very emotional
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that day. It It always gets me when I think about it now. She Her voice was shaking and she was just begging
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people to to stand by her family. And so, she was really appealing to all of the people out there
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to to help them with any tips, any any leads, anything like that because she said she wanted to keep that promise
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to the children. >> Mhm. But still, there's no body. Right? Uh these are difficult cases.
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>> Absolutely. A no body case, a very high burden for the prosecution to prove this. And I think that's the reason why
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this trial is ex- pected to last 3 months. I mean, there's so much evidence they are putting out there. Their
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opening statement alone nearly went on an entire day because they were laying out in the opening statement piece by
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piece all the people that the jury was going to hear from, all of this evidence, all of these uh experts that
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are going to be testifying. So, yes, it is going to be a very long trial. >> What do we know about the defense's
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strategy at this point? >> The defense's strategy is we don't know what happened to Maya
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Millete. There's lots of things that could have happened to Maya Millete, and they have really been
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steering the jury toward the man that she was having an affair with. >> Mhm. >> They want to stir up that doubt in the
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jury's mind that it's it's possible somebody else could have done this. At one point during
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pre-trial motions, they were talking about somebody could have taken Maya, but it wasn't Larry.
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>> Well, let's let's talk about this. And let's talk about the man that she was having an affair with.
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>> Well, according to the defense, she had created this Instagram account, kind of like this private, anonymous
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Instagram account where she was basically talking to Jamie Laird on this account,
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and also venting her frustrations about her marriage on this account as well. But according to defense, there was a
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sexual relationship. There was a lot of graphic images and graphic photos shared
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between the two of them. The defense made it clear this wasn't like they just met up a couple of times. This was
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something that had been ongoing. So, the defense also points to Jamie's wife. His wife was pregnant and
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actually his alibi for where he was the day Maya disappeared is he says he was at the
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hospital with her because she was going into labor. >> Mhm. >> And so, the other thing the defense is
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probably going to point out during testimony is that Jamie never reached out to Maya after she disappeared. Their
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communication pretty much just ended on January 7th. And we learned through the prosecution this week that both Jamie
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and his wife are expected to take the witness stand during this trial. >> Hm, that is interesting. Um, okay. So,
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this trial is expected to last 3 months. Why so long? >> Well, they have a lot of circumstantial
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evidence to get through. They have a lot of investigators who are going to testify. They have a lot of experts that
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they're going to want to put up on the witness stand. We know from pre-trial motions that just the cell phone data
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itself was kind of in question by the defense. And then there's a lot of family members to also get through who
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are all testifying, a lot of friends. One of the biggest moments this week was that Maya's father was on
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the witness stand. He was being questioned by prosecutors. He has a translator with him.
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And that one moment he got up and had this just emotional outburst at Larry that he was crying and wailing and
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screaming saying, "I loved my daughter. Why did you do this? Why did you do this?" And this went on for a while.
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One of the defense attorneys left the courtroom crying. The judge cleared everybody out of the courtroom. The
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defense tried to call for a mistrial, but the judge said no. The judge said to the jury,
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"You can take into account the emotion behind what he said, but you must ignore the statements that he made." But I
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think that there were a lot of people that were pretty shaken by what they saw. >> Yeah, you know, you don't want people to
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have outbursts in court, but this family has waited so long for answers. They still don't know where Maya is, and
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it's, you know, in many ways kind of a double loss for them. Maya is gone, um, but Larry was part of their family.
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>> You know, and I've talked to legal experts about this who have made some pretty sad revelations that at the end
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of the day, Maya's family just wants to bring her home. That is all they want. They want
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to know where her body is. They want to bring her home. And sadly, legal experts
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have said the chances that they're going to get that closure and find out exactly
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where she is is extremely slim. I mean, if Larry is found not guilty, obviously,
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then there's nothing for him to reveal to them. However, if if he is found guilty, this
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would probably get tied up in the court system for a while. >> It's quite a case, Kelly.
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And I know you'll be in the courtroom watching. This is a case of 48 Hours has been following for years, and we're
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certainly going to continue to follow it as the trial unfolds. Kelly, I got to thank you so much for joining us and
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taking some time out of your busy day to sit [music] down and talk with us. >> Thank you for having me.
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>> I'm Anne-Marie Green. This is Case by Case from 48 Hours. We will be back next
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week, and make sure that you let us know which case you are following in your podcast reviews and comments.