Larry Millete Update 2026: When Is His Sentencing, and Was Maya Ever Found?

May Millete — Maya to everyone who knew her — walked into her Chula Vista house at about 4:45 p.m. on Jan. 7, 2021. A camera caught her going in. No camera caught her coming out. She texted her sister around 8:15 that night, and there the record of her life stops.

Five and a half years later a San Diego jury decided what happened in that house. Her husband is now waiting to be sentenced, and her body has never been found.

Key takeaways

• Larry Millete was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder on July 9, 2026, after a trial that ran roughly two months.
• Sentencing is set for Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026 before Judge Enrique Camarena. First-degree murder carries 25 years to life; a separate assault-weapon count he pleaded guilty to on July 20 can add up to three years.
• Maya has still not been found. By sentencing day it will be 2,091 days since she was last heard from.

What is Larry Millete being sentenced for?

One count of first-degree murder and one count of unlawful possession of an assault weapon. The murder verdict came from a Chula Vista jury on July 9 after deliberations of about five hours, following a trial that had run since spring.

The weapons count never went to a jury. Millete changed his plea on it on Monday, July 20, which cleared the last procedural obstacle and let the judge set a sentencing date.

What did prosecutors say happened?

That Maya wanted a divorce and her husband would not let the marriage end. Prosecutors told the jury he killed her inside their home, put her body in an SUV and disposed of it on Jan. 8, during a stretch of about 12 hours when nobody could account for where he was.

The case had no body, no confession and no crime scene in the usual sense. It was built on what was around the edges: the surveillance timeline, the phone records, the marriage.

The strangest piece of it came out of the arrest warrant. Investigators described messages Millete sent to online spellcasters, asking them to make his wife unable to leave the house. Deputy District Attorney Christy Bowles, announcing the verdict, said plainly that "May is still missing."

How long has this taken?

Longer than almost any case we track. Our own count, from the public dates:

• 2,009 days from the night Maya was last heard from to the guilty verdict.
• 1,724 days from Millete's arrest to that verdict — four years and eight months, most of it pretrial.
• 2,091 days from Jan. 7, 2021 to the sentencing hearing on Sept. 29.

Those gaps are why the family kept searching in public for so long. The verdict answered the legal question and left the other one open.

Has Maya Millete been found?

No. Her remains have never been recovered, and the conviction did not change that. Volunteers and family members have searched San Diego County backcountry repeatedly since 2021.

Cases like this one are why a sentencing hearing can matter beyond the number of years. Victim-impact statements are sometimes the last formal opportunity a family gets to ask a defendant a question in open court, and nothing about a first-degree conviction obliges him to answer it.

What can the judge actually do on Sept. 29?

Less than people often expect. First-degree murder in California carries a term of 25 years to life, so the murder sentence itself is largely fixed. Judge Camarena's discretion sits mostly in the weapons count: up to three more years, and whether that time runs alongside the murder term or after it.

Parole eligibility, if it comes, would begin no earlier than the 25-year mark.

👉 Watch for one thing in the ruling: consecutive versus concurrent. It is the only number in genuine dispute.

Which show covered this case?

48 Hours did, well before the arrest led anywhere. "Searching for Maya Millete," reported by correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti, first aired in February 2022 and has been updated on CBS News since the verdict. CBS also covered the guilty finding on the network's 48 Hours channels in July.

Neither Dateline nor 20/20 has broadcast a full hour on the case. Both open new seasons on Friday, Sept. 25 — the week of the sentencing — and we list what is scheduled in the Sept. 21–27 breakdown. 48 Hours itself does not return with new episodes until Oct. 10, per our viewing guide.

What else is in court that week?

Sept. 29 is busy. In Massachusetts, a Plymouth County judge holds the status hearing that decides whether Lindsay Clancy is retried after this month's mistrial. Earlier in the week, on Monday, the Indiana Court of Appeals hears oral argument in Richard Allen's Delphi appeal.

Two other 48 Hours cases we follow are also moving: the Kouri Richins fraud trial is set for October, and a Colorado judge raised Barry Morphew's bond to $10 million this month. The full trail is in Case Updates, and the show archive is at 48 Hours.

FAQ

When is Larry Millete's sentencing? Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in San Diego County Superior Court, before Judge Enrique Camarena.

How much time is he facing? 25 years to life for first-degree murder, plus up to three years on the assault-weapon count.

Where is Maya Millete now? Still missing. Her body has never been found.

Can he appeal? A California first-degree murder conviction carries an automatic right of appeal, and no notice had been reported as of Sept. 19.

Sources

• KPBS — Larry Millete convicted of first-degree murder (July 9, 2026)
• Times of San Diego — sentencing set for Sept. 29 before Judge Camarena (July 20, 2026)
• CBS News / 48 Hours — the search for Maya Millete, arrest date and charges
• NBC 7 San Diego — jury finds Larry Millete guilty of first-degree murder
• CBS News — the spellcaster messages described in the arrest warrant

By the True Crime On Air desk · Updated Sept. 19, 8:24 a.m. ET