{"id":114003,"date":"2025-08-02T21:48:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T21:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/114003\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T21:48:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T21:48:13","slug":"husband-accused-of-killing-wife-may-millete-wants-murder-trial-moved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/114003\/","title":{"rendered":"Husband accused of killing wife May Millete wants murder trial moved"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chula<\/a>Posters of May \u201cMaya\u201d Millete displayed at a vigil on the one-year anniversary of her disappearance. (File photo courtesy of OnScene.TV)<\/p>\n

The extensive publicity and news coverage surrounding Larry Millete<\/a> would prevent him from receiving a fair trial if it\u2019s held in Chula Vista, his attorneys argued in a court filing.<\/p>\n

The Chula Vista man, charged with murdering his wife<\/a>, May \u201cMaya\u201d Millete, who has been missing for more than four years after vanishing from her home, is set to go on trial in January.<\/p>\n

Attorneys for Millete \u2013 who signaled last month that they might want his case to be tried outside the South Bay \u2013 claim the media coverage surrounding her disappearance and his criminal case \u201chas obviously influenced public perception.\u201d It also \u201cposes a significant and unreasonable risk of juror bias.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorneys Liann Sabatini and Colby Ryan argue that it would be especially difficult to impanel impartial jurors in Chula Vista, because the size of the population that would be drawn upon for a potential jury pool is not large enough \u201cto dilute adverse publicity.\u201d<\/p>\n

In their change-of-venue motion, Millete\u2019s defense team is seeking to have the trial moved to either Vista or El Cajon. A hearing on the motion is scheduled for next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is obvious that there is an extreme danger that potential jurors in South Bay would, and have already, judged Mr. Millete based on what the media has extensively and rarely accurately detailed about his lifestyle and personality, rather than on his proven acts or anything based on the actual evidence in this case,\u201d the motion reads.<\/p>\n

The defense motion specifically points to an October 2021 news conference held by Chula Vista police and the San Diego County District Attorney\u2019s Office<\/a> shortly after Millete\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n

During the news conference, District Attorney Summer Stephan laid out numerous evidentiary details that she said showed Millete murdered his wife, many of which the defense says were misleading, inaccurate and intended to sway the public into assuming Millete was guilty.<\/p>\n

Among those statements were references to home surveillance audio that picked up a series of sharp noises in the Millete family\u2019s neighborhood on the night May Millete disappeared.<\/p>\n

She has been neither seen nor heard from since Jan. 7, 2021.<\/p>\n

Stephan said the FBI could not confirm whether those noises were gunshots, due to the quality of the recording. Millete\u2019s attorneys argue the mere suggestion that the sounds were gunshots has tainted potential jurors and was \u201can attempt to admit potentially inadmissible evidence as proof of Mr. Millete\u2019s guilt, which will be impossible for jurors to forget about and will undoubtedly bias and influence their perspectives of the facts of the case before even entering the courtroom for trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another statement referenced a series of messages Millete allegedly sent to \u201cspell casters\u201d to try and compel his wife to give up her plans to divorce him. Some of the messages suggested having her incapacitated \u2013 by causing her to suffer an accident or break a bone \u2013 so she could not leave the home and would depend on Millete, Stephan said.<\/p>\n

Stephan stated the messages displayed Millete\u2019s \u201chomicidal ideations to harm Mrs. Millete,\u201d but the defense argued that none of the messages included a request to kill May, something that was not disclosed during the news conference.<\/p>\n

Stephan also noted that she had not previously dealt with spell casting in any case in her career, which the defense said was intended to sensationalize the case, such that \u201cit would be impossible for the consciousness of the South Bay community members to forget or not be biased against Mr. Millete.\u201d<\/p>\n

They argue the references to spell casting in news stories covering the case have drawn \u201cnegative bias towards Mr. Millete \u2026 especially with potential jurors of religious faiths that condemn any acts of spell casting or witchcraft, which will ultimately prevent Mr. Millete from receiving a fair trial in the South Bay.\u201d<\/p>\n

The defense filing also hints at potential aspects of Millete\u2019s defense strategy, including an alleged lack of evidence pointing to a killing happening within the Millete home. The motion states that the investigation has turned up no signs of bullets being fired in the home, no signs of May Millete\u2019s blood in the house or Millete\u2019s vehicle, and that cadaver dogs brought into the home and Millete\u2019s vehicle didn\u2019t detect anything.<\/p>\n

The filing also states May Millete \u201chad in the past on multiple occasions blocked Mr. Millete, turned off her location, and left Mr. Millete and his children at home, without telling them where she\u2019s going to go, only to show up back home at some point several days later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Millete, 43, remains in jail without bail. He faces up to 25 years to life in state prison if convicted of murder. He\u2019s also charged with a felony count of possessing an assault weapon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Posters of May \u201cMaya\u201d Millete displayed at a vigil on the one-year anniversary of her disappearance. (File photo…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":114004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,71751,16214,71752,71753,71754,71755,3549,38011,7264,71756,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-114003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-change-of-venue","12":"tag-chula-vista","13":"tag-defense-attorneys","14":"tag-larry-millete","15":"tag-may-maya-millete","16":"tag-may-millete","17":"tag-san-diego","18":"tag-san-diego-county-district-attorneys-office","19":"tag-sandiego","20":"tag-summer-stephan","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114961377124076802","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}