The Millete Verdict and the Power of Circumstantial Evidence

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For more than five years, the disappearance of Maya Millete was one of San Diego County's most closely followed cases. A Chula Vista mother of three, Maya vanished from her home in January 2021 and was never found. This July, a jury finally delivered an answer, convicting her husband, Larry Millete, of first-degree murder, even though her body has never been recovered.

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How prosecutors secured that conviction with no body, no weapon, and no confirmed cause of death is a question San Diego criminal defense attorney David P. Shapiro spent much of the trial helping the public understand. Shapiro, founder of David P. Shapiro Criminal Defense Attorneys and an independent legal analyst with no personal connection to the case, was a recurring voice on local television throughout the proceedings, and he was in the ABC 10News studio when the verdict came down on July 9, 2026.

From the outset, the case turned on interpretation rather than physical proof. The defense argued that someone else could have been responsible and that investigators had locked onto Larry too early, a strategy known as third-party culpability. As Shapiro explained to NBC 7 viewers in the trial's second week, it is a demanding approach, because it asks jurors to take an alternative account seriously, not just to poke holes in the prosecution's case.

The trial initially moved slowly. By mid-June it had bogged down in disputes over chain of custody, the documented trail showing how each piece of evidence was collected, stored, and handled. When both sides refuse to stipulate to how an item was managed, Shapiro told NBC 7, every one has to be proven through what can feel like tedious testimony, the unglamorous groundwork that makes evidence trustworthy to a jury.

As deliberations neared, the judge made a consequential ruling, instructing jurors that they could consider a lesser charge instead of murder. That kind of option can reshape a deliberation, Shapiro noted on ABC 10News, handing a divided jury a possible middle ground. But the Millete jury did not take it. After nearly two months of testimony, they deliberated for under five hours and returned the most serious verdict available.

For Shapiro, the outcome was a striking demonstration of how far circumstantial evidence can carry a case. Prosecutors never produced the kind of direct proof many people assume a murder charge requires. They assembled a mosaic of indirect evidence instead, and the jury found it convincing. Cases tried without a body remain relatively rare, which is part of why this one drew attention well beyond San Diego.

The case is not fully closed. Larry Millete pleaded guilty to a separate weapons charge in July, and a judge has set sentencing for September 29, 2026, when he faces 25 years to life in state prison plus a consecutive sentence for the weapons charge. For Maya's family, the verdict brought some measure of resolution, though her remains have never been found.

Shapiro's steady presence in the coverage reflects a reputation built over nearly two decades of defending serious felony cases in San Diego. Local reporters have come to rely on him to translate the machinery of a criminal trial into plain language, and he is a frequent public educator on defendants' rights, with one consistent message for anyone under investigation: politely decline to discuss your case and unequivocally ask for a lawyer.

About David P. Shapiro Criminal Defense Attorneys

David P. Shapiro Criminal Defense Attorneys is a San Diego criminal defense firm focused on serious felony matters, including violent crimes, weapons offenses, drug charges, and sex offenses. David Shapiro, an award-winning criminal defense attorney, has practiced in San Diego since 2007 and founded the firm in 2010. The firm works from offices in San Diego and El Cajon and serves clients throughout San Diego County.

To learn more, visit davidpshapirolaw.com.

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