Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Missing Mom of 3 Allegedly Murdered by Husband Who Claims She Packed Up and Left

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Larry Milete, May's husband, is responsible for May's murder and disappearance. More than three years after police say a woman was murdered by her husband, her sister becomes the guardian for her three children. I'll tell you everything we know about the murder of Maya Milliete so far and why her husband Larry is accused of killing her despite her body never being found. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Maya Milliete had three children with her husband Larry when she disappeared from their

Starting point is 00:00:43 home in Chula Vista outside of San Diego back in January of 2021. Maya, who also went by May, was a devoted mother to three children, but the San Diego County District Attorney says Maya wasn't happy in her marriage. Starting in 2020 and continuing until January 7 of 2021, May wanted a divorce for many reasons. Her husband, Larry, did not want the divorce. May was committed to her three young children. They were the center of her life. She wanted to continue being a parent, and she tried to negotiate that they can be parents to their children but not subject the children to a toxic relationship. But Larry would not have it. In homicide cases,

Starting point is 00:01:37 there's often a triggering event. In this case, on January 7 of 2021, May was no longer talking about divorce. She took that step and the last call recorded that May made was to a divorce attorney. That was DA Summer Stephan. She said that Larry knew that Maya had contacted a divorce attorney and that she was serious about leaving him. When she called the divorce attorney on January 7, we know that Larry was aware because he sent text messages that were screenshot to his boss that let him know that this was final, that it was coming. In fact, Stefan said Larry had become so desperate to hold on to Maya that he had even tried casting spells on her.

Starting point is 00:02:37 Yes, you heard me right. Larry was trying to hold on to May and he resorted to contacting what are called spell casters. I've never had a case where that was involved. These spell casters would be asked to make May want to stay in the relationship. But as December of 2020 came, those messages to spellcasters were a lot more threatening. He was asking for May to become incapacitated, for May to be in an accident, to have broken bones so that she could stay at home, thus displaying his homicidal ideations to harm May. Everyone who knew Maya said her three children were the most important thing in her life. Her world revolved around them. The DA says that Larry Miliete made a decision that he couldn't take back on January 7th of 2021. He took Maya's life. Count One alleges that Larry Miliete unlawfully killed May

Starting point is 00:03:46 on or about January 7th of 2021. The announcement of Larry Miliete being charged with Maya's murder came on October 19th, 2021, more than 10 months after she was reported missing. Maya's sister and members of the community had searched for Maya tirelessly, hoping to find her alive. May was loved by her family and friends and was committed to her children. May's murder and disappearance has impacted so many over the past nine months, including many people who had never even met May. Yet they rallied around her family and helped keep May's disappearance in the spotlight. The DA and the police chief outlined why they believed Larry Miliete murdered Maya. They said cameras in the neighborhood actually recorded nine loud bangs just before 10 p.m. on

Starting point is 00:04:39 January 7th, 2021. However, the FBI could not identify those bangs as gunshots. Today's phone activity stopped on January 8th at 1.25 a.m. Security video brought by, retained by Chula Vista PD showed the defendant on January 8th at 5.58 a.m. in the morning, moving his Lexus GX460, a black Lexus, with the license plate that bears the name Meilani. The Lexus was already backed into the driveway, but Larry Miliete repositioned that Lexus where the back of the Lexus is in the entrance of that garage. He repositioned it where no video camera can capture whether a body was put in the back of the Lexus or not. At 6.45 a.m. on January 8, 2021, the DA says that Larry Miliate left his home,

Starting point is 00:05:56 leaving his cell phone behind for 11 hours and 21 minutes. On that date, his employer was calling frantically, January 8. He even called May, saying this is not like Larry not to show up to work and wondering where Larry was. His father called checking where he is, but no response. The phone was not operating. To this day, Maya's body has not been found, but the DA doesn't believe that that will be a problem in prosecuting Larry Milioti for murder. California law, and similar to across the nation, is very clear that the murder charges, that we can file murder charges despite not having a body. In fact, the law is so crystal clear that we cannot let someone murder someone and gain a benefit by hiding the body in a way that we can't discover it. In fact, there is case law that we will be using in this case that makes it even more clear that a missing body is circumstantial evidence that there was foul play and that it's a murder. Because somebody who takes their own life cannot hide their own body.

Starting point is 00:07:20 We filed this case based on the evidence that was developed during an extensive nine-month investigation. I cover so many awful cases here on Crime Fix, like the murder of Maya Milliette. We can do that because of sponsors like Morgan & Morgan. Morgan & Morgan has more than 1,000 attorneys you may want in your corner if you are ever hurt. Morgan & Morgan has won several multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements recently for victims who were hurt in life-altering car crashes. All of those settlements were considerably higher

Starting point is 00:07:52 than the highest insurance company offer. Starting a claim takes eight clicks or less and it can all be done from your smartphone. And there are no upfront fees. You only pay Morgan & Morgan if you win. So if you are ever hurt, you can easily start a claim in eight clicks or less at forthepeople.com slash crimefix. The murder of Maya Miliete has been a tragedy for her children and her sister, Mary Chris

Starting point is 00:08:18 Julliet, who broke down speaking of the betrayal she felt at that press conference in October of 2021. It's been really hard. He's a family. He's our family. It's hard to, it's hard to go against a family. He's been with us for 20 years. My sister did love him. She gave him three kids. She just can't let go. For his part, Larry Miliete has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, and he has said that he did not kill Maya.

Starting point is 00:09:06 The children were in the care of Larry's parents until last week when a judge awarded Mary Chris and her husband guardianship of Maya's children. CBS 8 in San Diego reported that the Drulies attorney had presented a judge with evidence that Larry Miliete's parents had tried to turn the children, now ages 14, 13, and 8, against Maya's family and had created a toxic environment for the children. The Drulies lawyer also said the elder Milietes had been coaching the children to stop mental health treatment. The court order said the children were supposed to start living with the Drulies this past weekend at the latest. The attorney for the Drulies this past weekend at the latest. The attorney for the Drulies, Scott Finkbeiner, declined my request for an interview,

Starting point is 00:09:50 calling this a sensitive case. Randy Kessler is a family law attorney. Randy, thanks so much for coming on. Your thoughts on this. I find this interesting that Maya Miliete's sister was able to go to court and win custody of her sister's children. It is interesting. And to me as a family lawyer, it's terrible that so often these divorce and murder intersect, right? It just shouldn't be. They're just family. They have enough to be going through with the trauma of the death of the father I'm sorry the mother but what's interesting to me is that dad has all the rights right he's the remaining parent and parents always have the first right to have custody of their children since he wasn't able to take care of the children he still gets to designate who takes care of his kids so his parents were in charge for a while it seems like Justice finally caught up with the the facts on

Starting point is 00:10:43 the ground so to speak that you know if they were doing a great job, they would have kept custody. So that's what, that's what the outsider divorce lawyer, me, sees in it is that they weren't doing a great job, according to this judge, because they weren't letting the kids have a good relationship with mom's parents and mom's family. Sounds like the house was going to go into foreclosure. Who knows how much they were telling the kids about the situation. It would have been interesting to be in that courtroom and watch the evidence firsthand. Cameras weren't allowed in for this. This is a guardianship hearing, and so it's a very sensitive matter.

Starting point is 00:11:19 Larry Migliate maintains he didn't kill Maya, and this is one of those cases where, you know, her body still has never been found. But, you know, the prosecutors say he indeed murdered her because she was going to leave him. What's interesting, too, the grandparents were not represented by counsel. So they went in and represented themselves. And they said, you know, they thought they were doing a good job. But also the family of the aunt who now has custody of the children, Mary Chris Drulia, their lawyer said basically that the grandparents were poisoning the children against the other side of the family and coaching the kids to stop mental health treatment. You know, a forensic psychologist vouched for Mary Chris Drulia and said that she should have

Starting point is 00:12:12 custody of the children, that this was in the best interest of the children. So it sounds like they went in there prepared to present their case with counsel, with an expert to say, this is why it's in the best interest of these children to be removed from the care of their grandparents right and to me it's always better to go in with a lawyer with a good lawyer of course it doesn't mean you're going to win the facts are the facts are the facts but the two things that having counsel does there are two advantages one is they know how to preserve error like if the judge made a mistake and let in evidence he shouldn't have, the lawyers would know that and they would know that they have an appealable issue. The side that didn't have lawyers may not be able to appeal it. They may not have been prepared for an appeal.

Starting point is 00:12:53 The other thing is strategically, you know, lawyers do this over and over. They know what's going to affect the judge. They know what evidence is relevant, admissible, and there might've been good evidence on the grandparent's side that they couldn't get in because it was hearsay and they didn't know the rules of hearsay that you can't say what somebody that isn't present said so having lawyers absolutely is an advantage but in a case like this judge is going to look beyond the lawyers and they're going to really try to dig deep and figure out what's best for these children one other interesting thing that you mentioned is that it's a guardianship and not full custody. Dad may be acquitted.

Starting point is 00:13:30 And if he gets acquitted, he's going to jump back to the head of the law for custody of these children. Yeah, and that's always a possibility. I mean, that could happen. The trial is probably going to be held next year. His lawyers are asking to push the case back, delay it so they can prepare a little longer. But, you know, it's just a really sad case. I mean, these are children who've lost their mother. Her body's never been found, but they are 14, 13, and 8 years old.

Starting point is 00:14:00 And they need a stable environment. I mean, these are children who are, they've lost both parents, essentially. I mean, dad is in jail facing charges for murder. Mom, you know, is presumed dead. Dad's charged with murdering them. They need a stable environment with people who are going to provide a loving environment and who are going to nurture them and help them become productive members of society. I mean, this is a situation that no person would envy. Right. It's a very difficult situation. And I don't envy the judge either because, yes, long-term, the judge decided that mom's family, mom's sister would be better off to be stable for the children and be in their best interest. But there was a change again. They've

Starting point is 00:14:44 already had the change of the absence of their mother and now they've been living in their same home for the last few years they've been living with dad's parents for the last few years and so those are going to change too the judge must have had some pretty good evidence in front of them to decide that it's worth changing them out of their current home, their current caregivers, to a new person, the aunt. They know the aunt, of course. But yes, long-term, how do judges do this? And I'll tell you something. Every time we go in front of a judge and we ask, you know, how do you feel about handling custody cases? Every judge I know would say, I'd rather handle a murder case because I have to decide how to affect these children's lives, and I have a lot to do with it. Murder, that happened. All

Starting point is 00:15:24 we're doing is punishing. You know, but with children, it's really a big burden for the judge. And I'm sure he didn't take this lightly and looked at the evidence very seriously. It's an incredibly sad case. And I think we all know that the judge felt that what was best for these children, what was in their best interest was to go with Mary Chris Drulia, Maya's sister. Thank you so much, Randy Kessler, for coming on. My pleasure. Right now, Larry Miliete's murder trial is scheduled to begin in January of 2025.

Starting point is 00:15:54 And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.

Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Missing Mom of 3 Allegedly Murdered by Husband Who Claims She Packed Up and Left

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.