Mathew Grindley returned to the witness stand on day 19 of Larry Millete’s murder trial. The investigator with the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office continued to help the prosecution enter digital evidence into the record. Larry is accused of murdering his wife, Maya, in 2021 and th en hiding her body, which has never been found. He’s pleaded not guilty. Grindley detailed many of the search warrants he’d filed in the case, including one for Google records, showing email accounts belonging to both Larry and Maya. He said one address linked to Larry was deleted 10 days after Maya was last seen alive. Grindley said because of that deletion, he was never able to know anything the account did. That includes potential Google searches, email content, or location data. Mathew Grindley, an investigator with the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, testifies during Larry Millete’s preliminary hearing in 2023. “There was no information that was preserved because it was deleted,” Grindley said. “That timing of the deletion was a critical piece of information.” Additionally, Grindley said that Larry’s Google account had likely been set up to automatically delete its location history, which he said was not something he’s typically seen from dozens of search warrants he’d filed. He said constant deletion events began happening as much as three times a day after Maya vanished.  “Any investigation about a deletion raises the hair on your back, and I wanted to capitalize on this and see when this was happening,” Grindley testified. One thing Grindley said he was able to recover from the warrant – search history from Larry’s email account. Searches from December 2020 and January 2021 included queries for so-called date rape drugs like Rohypnol, subliminal messages, spellcasters, and how to determine if you were having a nervous breakdown. The tone and the content of searches appeared to change after Maya disappeared. The exhibit shown to jurors featured Googling the Grand Canyon, spotless car soap, a shower head, and searches for Facebook. Maya Millete Finally, he detailed many of the searches that Maya conducted from her account in December 2020 and January 2021. Those included how to calculate alimony and child support payments, determine the value of a home, and multiple searches for local divorce attorneys. Grindley said her final Google search on January 7, 2021 at 8:12 p.m. was for a special kind of dirt bike. As court concluded for the day, it was clear that Maya’s sister Maricris had been crying. No evidence of Maya’s whereabouts after January 7, 2021 The first to testify Wednesday morning was U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent Monica Williams. Though her role is different now, back in 2021, investigators asked her to access the system that records data every time a person or vehicle encounters a border patrol agent or border crossing. Williams testified that the system showed that the last time CBP encountered Maya Millete at a border crossing was in 2019. A license plate reader also snapped photos of Maya’s Jeep on January 4, 2021, at a CBP checkpoint on I-8 near Campo.  Photos showed a woman, presumably Maya, behind the wheel. Those questions speak to the narrative the defense has been pushing – that Maya wasn’t murdered by her husband, and instead ran off on her own accord. Larry Millete’s last encounter with CBP at a border crossing was in 2018. There were no mentions of any of his vehicles triggering checkpoint photos. Testimony came to a halt when Deputy District Attorney Christy Bowles asked for similar information about Jamey Laird, the man both the prosecution and the defense have said had an affair with Maya. Before his latest CBP encounters were revealed, the defense objected. That resulted in a 10-minute sidebar outside the presence of the jury. When testimony resumed, no further questions were asked about Laird. During cross-examination, Colby Ryan, one of Larry’s defense attorneys, asked about the reliability of the license plate cameras that record CBP encounters. Williams testified that traffic conditions, weather, and even daylight can impact how well they work. Next, NCIS agent Daniel McManus took the stand. He revealed that he was asked to generate a report of every time that Maya went onto military installations. During her career, she worked on both Naval Base San Diego and Naval Base Point Loma. McManus said the last record of her going on base was December 23, 2020, which was a little more than two weeks before she was last seen alive. Her ‘common access card’ has never been logged entering any military installation since. During cross-examination, Ryan again asked a witness about the reliability of the technology that’s used to scan those cards. McManus acknowledged that the system has been known to go down or the scanners to malfunction. Ryan also made a point to highlight that Maya’s last base access was at an installation where she no longer worked. In late 2020, she worked at the Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) in Point Loma, and not at the Southwest Regional Maintenance Center (SWRMC) at Naval Base San Diego. Previous testimony had revealed that Maya had met up with Jamey Laird in the SWRMC parking lot on at least one other occasion. That happened in June of 2020, when Larry reportedly confronted the pair as they sat inside a vehicle together. Millete family tutor testifies about seeing Maya on January 7, 2021 Prosecutors also called Karla Navarette Ocampo to the stand. For the two years prior to Maya’s disappearance, she tutored one of Larry Maya’s daughters. Navarette Ocampo testified that he visited the family’s home in Chula Vista’s San Miguel Ranch neighborhood in the evening on January 7, 2021, for one such tutoring session.  It wasn’t explicitly stated, but she was likely the last non-Millete family member to see Maya. Navarette Ocampo said she didn’t remember anything unusual about her interactions with either Maya or Larry. The defense made sure that she acknowledged she never witnessed any violence from Larry towards Maya or their children. The court will be closed for the Juneteenth holiday. Testimony resumes on Monday. ...read more read less