Day 20 in the murder trial of Larry Millete saw some of the most anticipated testimony yet, as his missing wife Maya’s paramour testified inside a packed Chula Vista courtroom. Larry is accused of killing his wife in 2021 and hiding her body. He’s pleaded not guilty. Jurors have heard previou s testimony detailing Maya’s affair with a subordinate co-worker named Jamey Laird. The pair met in late 2019, when Laird was hired to work as a Navy contract specialist at the Southwest Regional Maintenance Center (SWRMC). Laird testified that their relationship blossomed quickly from a work relationship into a romantic one. “It became physical in early January,” Laird said. “Kind of like a newlywed feeling…but over time it became a deeper love.” Like Maya, Jamey was also married. During their relationship in 2020, Laird testified that both Maya and his wife became pregnant.  Laird’s wife went into labor the same day Maya was last seen alive on January 7, 2021. Other evidence, including paperwork at the Millete home, indicated that Maya chose to terminate her pregnancy. Laird also confirmed that during questioning, saying he feared knowledge of her abortion would become public. Due to the hidden nature of their relationship, Laird said he and Maya coordinated the denials they told their spouses, family, friends, and co-workers. Much of that communication was online, via Maya’s secret Instagram account. “Nothing was off limits,” Laird said. “ We were always working together to cover up the affair…there was no topic off limits…even things to repair my relationship.” Jamey Laird’s concerns about Larry Millete An undated picture of Larry Maya Millete. Laird said they even used nicknames for their significant others. He said he referred to his wife as “E,” as in esposa, the Spanish word for wife. He said Maya referred to Larry as “V,” in relation to the villainous wizard Voldemort from the Harry Potter series. Laird said Maya confided in him about Larry’s controlling behaviors, which included refusing to let her drive herself to work. He said that took place in late 2020, which was after previous testimony revealed that Larry caught the two of them together in the SWRMC parking lot. Laird said Maya also told him that Larry planted a tracking device in her car and hid a subliminal message device under her bed. “I’d not seen that level of desperation to save a marriage, and I told her to be careful,” Laird said. Laird testified that the first time he believes he met Larry was after allegations of the affair were reported to their superiors at work, by his own mother-in-law. He said he, Maya, and Larry were called for a meeting with Maya’s supervisor. Before that meeting, Laird said he and Maya coordinated their stories. He said they denied the affair and called the entire thing a misunderstanding. Laird even said he signed a statement under penalty of perjury denying the affair. Laird’s last communications with Maya A courtroom sketch artist’s rendition of Jamey Laird, the man who had an affair with missing Chula Vista mother Maya Millete. Laird testified that he communicated with Maya in the week leading up to her disappearance and the birth of his child. He described her mood as defeated as Larry fought her attempts to leave him, which included threatening to bring up affair allegations again at work. However, he said Maya was determined to leave Larry, and said she would be filing for divorce after celebrating her daughter’s birthday in Big Bear. That trip never happened due to her disappearance.  Laird also testified that Maya even finally confided in her eldest daughter about the divorce. She said her daughter was receptive. Laird said he was at the hospital for his wife’s labor and delivery on January 7 and stayed at the hospital until January 10. He said he didn’t even know Maya was missing until Maya’s sister-in-law, Genesis Tabalanza, and her friend Jasmin Rooker reached out with concerns that she was missing. Laird also acknowledged that he was less than truthful on several occasions when he spoke to police about Maya’s disappearance. “No, I spun it…That I hadn’t heard from her in a work sense,” Laird said. “I was scared and didn’t want the affair coming out. I was also fearful that something happened to her, and I was trying to save my marriage.” Laird admits to lying repeatedly to his family, work investigators, and police detectives In a sketch artist’s rendition, defense attorney Colby Ryan cross-examines Maya Millete’s affair partner Jamey Laird, as Judge Enrique Camarena looks on, during Larry Millete’s murder trial on June 22, 2026. During cross-examination, Colby Ryan, one of Larry’s defense attorneys, repeatedly hammered Laird about the lies he now admits he told to investigators. Laird was forced to acknowledge dozens of falsehoods, including the existence of the affair, when it began, and how he and Maya communicated. When he couldn’t recall exactly what he said and when, Ryan played back portions of Laird’s police interviews to him or made him read the Instagram messages he exchanged with Maya. That happened nearly a dozen times in order to refresh his memory. Laird also acknowledged that he routinely deleted their communications to keep the affair secret. That included deleting the entire Instagram app from his phone, though he said he didn’t know if the messages disappeared when that happened. Many of the messages were sexual, containing images and videos, Laird confirmed during cross-examination. “Would it surprise you that 76% of the time you messaged May, it was sexual?” Ryan asked. “I wouldn’t know the exact number,” Laird answered. Laird said that Maya instructed him to delete the messages a few days before she vanished. He testified that Maya feared an investigation was about to be reopened at work, based on threats from Larry. He said Larry had even called Laird’s phone and his wife’s phone, prompting him to change both their phone numbers. Laird said he was worried about his wife’s pregnancy. “She was about to be due in a week, and she was an emotional wreck,” Laird said. While he didn’t remember the exact date he confessed the affair to his wife, he admits that he lied to her repeatedly during the first several months Maya was missing. He said he’s no longer married. Before his testimony concluded, the prosecution asked Laird to read a letter he wrote to Maya in June of 2020. Laird said that was likely written just before Larry caught them both in the SWRMC parking lot, and close to when Maya transferred from SWRMC to the Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC). “Hi pretty. Hii beautiful. Hi gorgeous,” Laird read. “I haven’t written many letters like this… I just want to see you happy…You really are one of a kind…Smart, funny…Oh, and very easy on the eyes…Did I mention how gorgeous you are, inside and out?” Though questioning ended today for Laird, the defense asked the judge to allow him to be recalled as a witness. Poison hemlock: a very common deadly plant A close-up image of the flowers of the poison hemlock plant. On Monday, prosecutors also called Dr. Job Rebman to the stand. He’s an expert in botany and testified extensively about the prevalence of poison hemlock in San Diego County. That deadly plant was found within a vial during a warrant search of Larry’s home in Chula Vista’s San Miguel Ranch neighborhood. Previously, we’ve heard testimony from other experts about how its neurotoxin, Coniine, can be extracted. “Basically, about 300 mg is enough to kill an adult person, and that’s a very small amount really,” Rebman said. “That’s like six or seven leaves.” Deputy District Attorney Christy Bowles showed the court a map, and Rebman testified that he’d personally identified poison hemlock in several local canyons. That included a canyon in Balboa Park, very close to the Naval Medical Center San Diego, where Larry worked for years as an optician. Rebman also said another plant found in that vial, called hairy fleabane, was also very common in San Diego County. He testified that he identified it in the same area of Balboa Park. ...read more read less