Case 01 / 14Chula Vista, CaliforniaUnited States

Larry Millete Sentenced to 25 Years to Life for Murder of Maya Millete as Family Begs Him to Reveal Where Her Body Is

Location: San Diego County Superior Court, Chula Vista, California, United States

Legal status: Convicted of first degree murder (July 2026); sentenced Nov. 2, 2026; new trial motion denied

The sentence. A San Diego Superior Court judge sentenced Larry Millete on Monday, Nov. 2, for the murder of his wife, Maya Millete, the Chula Vista mother of three who was last seen at the family’s San Miguel Ranch home on Jan. 7, 2021. Courthouse News Service reported the murder term as 25 years to life. NBC 7 San Diego reported a total of 27 years to life, explaining that two of those years relate to a separate gun charge that Millete pleaded guilty to after the trial. Read together, the reports describe 25 years to life for the murder plus two years on the firearm count. NBC 7 said the time Millete has spent in custody since 2021 will count toward the sentence. Maya Millete’s body has never been found.

The conviction. A jury found Larry Millete guilty of first degree murder in July, more than five years after his wife disappeared. With no remains recovered, prosecutors built a circumstantial case. According to Courthouse News, they showed the marriage was in trouble and portrayed Millete as controlling, abusive and obsessed. Prosecutors said he repeatedly bought online spells intended to regain his wife’s affection or to sicken and injure her. They also presented evidence that he turned off his phone and left home for about 12 hours the morning after Maya was last seen, driving roughly 444 miles. Millete has long denied killing his wife.

The new trial bid. Before sentencing, the defense asked Presiding Judge Enrique Camarena Jr. for a new trial. NBC 7 reported that the defense argued jurors had been biased, pointing to interviews jurors gave to several media outlets after the verdict; sentencing had been pushed back while attorneys subpoenaed video of those interviews. Courthouse News said the motion also cited evidentiary concerns. Camarena denied it.

The family speaks. About two hours of victim impact statements followed. “The search consumes our lives,” Maricris Drouaillet, Maya’s oldest sister and the legal guardian of her children, told the court, adding: “Maya deserves to come home.” Her sister Jane Fetalvero told Millete, “You don’t deserve to be called their dad, you don’t deserve to be free, because you kept our sister Maya, a prisoner.” Sister-in-law Genesis Tabalanza pleaded: “You can still tell us where May is. Do this for your children.”

Two of the couple’s daughters, Maylani and Lara Millete, spoke publicly for the first time. “I am the daughter of the victim and simultaneously the daughter of the defendant,” Lara said, according to Courthouse News. “As his daughter, I cannot stop loving him. He is the only parent we have left.” Maylani told the court, as quoted by NBC 7: “Only one question eating away at me… where is my mom?”

The defendant and his parents. Millete addressed the court without admitting guilt. “I am not a monster,” he said. “My only regret is that I wasn’t able to protect my wife enough.” When he turned to Drouaillet and said he really loved her sister, the gallery erupted. Maya’s niece, Rica Casino, shouted “Then why did you kill her?” and rushed toward him before relatives restrained her, Courthouse News reported; bailiffs removed several people. Millete’s mother, Judith Millete, told him she was proud of him. His father, Benito Millete, said he had asked his son nine times whether he did it. When he began making accusations about Maya, prosecutors objected and he appeared to suffer a medical episode involving his pacemaker and was taken out of court.

The judge. Camarena said the record “does not demonstrate humility or responsibility,” that Millete had “maintained a posture of denial and defiance,” and called his conduct after the killing “abhorrent.” He issued a protective order barring contact between Millete and his children. NBC 7 described it as a 10 year order that the children may petition to lift once they reach 18.

What prosecutors said. “This case is about deadly control,” District Attorney Summer Stephan told reporters. Deputy District Attorney Christy Bowles said she hoped “one day, we can bring closure to them and bring their mother home so they can lay her to rest.” The search for Maya Millete’s remains continues.

Case 03 / 14Los Angeles, CaliforniaUnited States

Boyfriend Charged With Murder of SNL Writer’s Sister Christina Downer, Whose Body Has Not Been Found

Location: Los Angeles County, California, United States

Legal status: Delorean Bijon Brandon charged with murder; Kaylee Nicole Markowski charged with accessory after the fact; both presumed innocent; arraignment postponed to Dec. 29

The charges. More than a year after Christina Downer vanished in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on Monday, Nov. 2, charged her longtime boyfriend with her murder. Delorean Bijon Brandon, 41, described by the Los Angeles Times as an actor and aspiring R&B artist, is charged with one count of murder. He is also charged with two felony counts of injuring a spouse over two separate alleged incidents involving his wife in 2022, according to Los Angeles magazine. Kaylee Nicole Markowski, 34, described by prosecutors as Brandon’s girlfriend and by the Times as his former on again, off again partner, is charged with one felony count of accessory after the fact. Prosecutors allege she helped dispose of Downer’s body. Both are presumed innocent.

The victim. Downer, 38, is the sister of “Saturday Night Live” writer Jimmy Fowlie, whose public appeals drew wide attention to her disappearance. Prosecutors allege she was killed on or around Sept. 19, 2025. Her body has not been recovered. “Although Ms. Downer has not been located, we are charging two individuals today who are accused of playing a role in her death and disappearance and we will hold them accountable for their actions,” District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said.

How the disappearance came to light. Downer was reported missing on Dec. 18, 2025, after her ex-husband asked police for a welfare check when he had not heard from her. Brandon told police she had moved out several months earlier, leaving behind her belongings, her car and her dog. By Dec. 22 her family was convinced something was badly wrong, and Fowlie posted a missing person flier saying she had last been seen in Koreatown. In the months that followed, Downer’s phone washed ashore on the beach in Santa Monica, and the LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division took over the case. In October, investigators searched an Airbnb in Joshua Tree in connection with the disappearance; police have not said what, if anything, they found.

The phone and the cover story. In an April post, Fowlie wrote that the family believed his sister’s phone and social media had been compromised in the weeks before she went missing, and that whoever had the phone “used it to hide the fact she was gone, to ask for money, and to create a false narrative that she was going ‘off the grid.'” He later wrote that the family had been told Christina was dead and that police were treating the case as a homicide. “Our prayers for her to be found safely have transformed into prayers for the truth to be revealed,” he wrote.

The restraining orders. Court records reviewed by the Times describe a tangle of relationships. On Sept. 2, 2025, Brandon petitioned for a restraining order against Markowski, alleging she became violent when he tried to leave her home to be with Downer and that she once threatened to shoot him. He also sought protection for Downer, alleging Markowski had tried to take jobs from her and sent threatening messages. A judge denied a temporary order pending a hearing set for Sept. 23, but on Sept. 18, one day before prosecutors say Downer was killed, Brandon filed a waiver and cancelled the hearing. A year earlier, on Sept. 5, 2024, Downer herself had sought a restraining order against Markowski, alleging harassment, racist slurs, threats, a stolen key, AirTags placed on a car, and blackmail using intimate videos from a stolen drive. “Mentally, this has done irreparable damage,” she wrote. None of those allegations has been tested in a criminal court.

Custody and next steps. Brandon and Markowski were arrested Oct. 29 and booked at the Metropolitan Detention Center with bail set at $2 million each. It was not clear whether they have lawyers. Their arraignments were postponed until Dec. 29, Los Angeles magazine reported, citing NBC Los Angeles. If convicted as charged, Brandon faces life in state prison and Markowski up to three years in county jail.

Case 05 / 14Raiford, FloridaUnited States

DeSantis Signs Death Warrant for Ricardo Gonzalez in 1992 Bank Robbery Killing of Officer Steven Bauer

Location: Florida State Prison, Raiford, Florida, United States; crime in North Miami, Miami-Dade County

Legal status: Convicted of first degree murder of a law enforcement officer (1994); death sentence reimposed 1998; execution scheduled 6 p.m. Dec. 1, 2026

The warrant. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a death warrant for Ricardo Gonzalez, 56, condemned for the Jan. 3, 1992, murder of police officer Steven Bauer during an armed robbery at Kislak National Bank. The warrant was signed on Friday, Oct. 30, and reported through the weekend and Monday. Warden Randall Polk set the execution for 6 p.m. on Dec. 1 at Florida State Prison in Raiford, the Tampa Free Press reported. If it proceeds, along with two other lethal injections scheduled for Thursday and Nov. 19, it would be Florida’s 21st execution of 2026, according to FOX 35. Florida carried out 19 executions last year, already the most in a single year since capital punishment resumed in 1976.

The robbery. Bauer, 39, a father of three who had been a police officer for 12 years, was escorting bank tellers to their drive in stations around 7:50 a.m., ten minutes before opening, when the robbers struck, the Miami Herald reported from its archives. The bank stood at 13490 NW Seventh Ave. Outlets differ on the officer’s department; the Herald describes him as a North Miami officer, while FOX 35 says North Miami Beach. Tellers said Bauer was singing a Christian hymn moments before he was shot and had joked, “You girls are going to be busy today.” He tried to draw his gun, but Gonzalez and Leonardo Franqui fired first. As he lay dying, the tellers said, the first thing he asked was, “Are you all right?”

The planning. According to the Herald, five men took part: Gonzalez, Franqui, Pablo San Martin, Fernando Fernandez and Pablo Abreu. They stole two gray Chevrolet Caprices to confuse witnesses, cased the bank and assigned roles. Franqui fired a 9mm handgun; Gonzalez fired the fatal shot from a .357 pistol, a bullet that entered Bauer’s neck and travelled into his heart. The cash tray held $17,000. Gonzalez later received $1,500 as his share, according to the 1998 sentencing order signed by Circuit Judge Robert Scola Jr. The guns were later recovered from a muddy canal. A tip from a Santeria priest, who said Fernandez had confessed, broke the case. “It’s a cold, vicious killing. Totally, totally premeditated,” North Miami Police Chief Kenneth Each said at the time.

The confession. Detectives stopped Gonzalez near his home a little over two weeks after the robbery. He gave unrecorded and recorded confessions, saying he aimed low and thought he hit Bauer only in the leg. Forensic evidence showed his gun fired the bullet that killed the officer.

Trials and appeals. A Dade County jury convicted Gonzalez in 1994 of first degree murder of a law enforcement officer, armed robbery, aggravated assault, two counts of burglary and two counts of grand theft. His first death sentence was thrown out on procedural grounds; in August 1998 a new jury voted 8 to 4 for death and Scola reimposed it. A neuropsychologist testified that he acted under extreme emotional disturbance linked to marital troubles, an unstable childhood, language barriers, impulsivity and brain trauma from boxing. Over two decades his lawyers pointed to co defendants who received life terms, head trauma and his expressed remorse; courts rejected those petitions. Attorney General James Uthmeier wrote on Oct. 30 that “there are no stays of execution issued by any court.”

The co defendants. Franqui remains on death row for the killing. Abreu, 72, drove the getaway car and is serving life. San Martin, 59, received life for Bauer’s murder; prison records list Fernandez as deceased. Franqui and San Martin were also sentenced to death for the killing of Raul Lopez, 46, in a Hialeah robbery a month earlier. No warrant dates have been announced for them. It is not known whether Gonzalez will pursue further appeals.

Case 07 / 14Walterboro, South CarolinaUnited States

Alex Murdaugh’s Lawyers Claim Fabricated Blood Spatter Evidence Was Put to Grand Jury, Seek Dismissal of Murder Indictments

Location: Colleton County, South Carolina, United States; hearing set at the Lexington County courthouse

Legal status: Charged with the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh; 2023 convictions overturned by the South Carolina Supreme Court in May 2026; presumed innocent; retrial set for April 2027

The motion. Lawyers for Alex Murdaugh have filed a 33 page memorandum asking a judge to throw out the 2022 Colleton County murder indictments against him, alleging that the state obtained them with fabricated evidence. The filing, lodged on Friday in the Colleton County clerk’s office and reported Monday, Nov. 2, supports a motion to dismiss first filed in August. “The indictments were procured by fabricated evidence and should be dismissed,” it says. Both sides are due to argue the motion on Friday, Nov. 13, before Judge Debra McCaslin at the Lexington County courthouse.

Where the case stands. Murdaugh, 58, a disgraced former attorney, was convicted in March 2023 of fatally shooting his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, in June 2021 at the family’s 1,700 acre estate in rural Colleton County, and was sentenced to two consecutive life terms. In May 2026 a unanimous South Carolina Supreme Court overturned the convictions, finding that jury tampering by the county clerk of court denied him a fair trial. He is again presumed innocent on the murder charges. McCaslin has set the retrial to begin on April 5, 2027; Court TV reported it will be held in Sumter County. Prosecutors are relying on the 2022 indictments as the basis for that trial.

The shirt. The core of the filing concerns the shirt Murdaugh wore on the night of June 7, 2021, when he said he found the bodies. The defence says SLED’s own laboratory determined within two months of the killings that the shirt “bore no human blood,” and that the agency then “set out to find an expert who would say it bore high-velocity blood spatter.” When the retained expert reported no such spatter, the filing alleges, SLED “got him to reverse himself, and the State leaked the reversed opinion to the press.” Lead case agent David Owen then testified to the grand jury in July 2022 that the shirt carried the victims’ blood spatter, 11 months after the lab finding, according to the defence. The spatter evidence was not introduced at the six week 2023 trial.

The shotgun shells. The second claim concerns ammunition. Before Murdaugh’s arrest, Owen told him that the ammunition used to kill one victim had been found loaded in similar shotguns on the property. At trial, Owen conceded that was untrue and said the law allowed him to use “trickery” with a suspect. The defence says he repeated the claim to the grand jury. “The law permits an interrogating officer, within limits, to deceive a suspect. It permits no one to deceive a grand jury,” the filing says.

The leak. The filing identifies FITSNews as the outlet that on April 26, 2022, published a story headlined “High-Velocity Impact Spatter Directly Ties Alex Murdaugh to Double Homicide, Sources Say.” The defence says it holds sworn deposition testimony naming the leaker and is ready to disclose it to the judge. FITSNews editor Will Folks said the story came from a reporter no longer with the outlet. “I want to see who was the leak,” he said. The filing also alleges prosecutors improperly used the State Grand Jury, “whose jurisdiction does not reach murder,” in the investigation.

What the defence wants. Murdaugh asks for dismissal without prejudice, so the state “stands where it stood in July 2022,” free to seek new indictments “from a grand jury that has not been deceived.” His lawyers note the Colleton County grand jury next meets on Dec. 10 and say a dismissal need not delay the April trial date. The filing also points to a separate murder case, against Michael Colucci, which a judge dismissed after finding Owen failed to document a key statement.

The state’s response. Attorney General spokesman Robert Kittle said the office would file a written reply and “address the matters at the hearing.” SLED Chief Mark Keel said the same. None of the defence allegations has been ruled on.

Case 09 / 14Frameries, BelgiumBelgium

Parents Charged With Assassination of Severely Disabled Son Esekia, 11, Who Weighed 12 Kilograms When He Died, Go on Trial

Location: Cour d’assises du Hainaut, Mons, Belgium; death in Frameries

Legal status: Gilles Viaene and Marjorie Brizard charged with assassination (premeditated murder) by deprivation of care; both contest that charge; presumed innocent; jury trial under way

The trial. A jury at the Hainaut assize court opened the trial this week of Gilles Viaene, 51, and Marjorie Brizard, 37, who are charged with the assassination, meaning premeditated murder under Belgian law, of their son Esekia. The 11 year old, who had cerebral palsy and could neither walk nor speak, died at the family home in Frameries on May 30, 2023. The autopsy found severe cachexia, or extreme wasting: he weighed 12 kilograms and his stomach was empty, DH Les Sports+ reported. The parents are presumed innocent. The central question, as the investigating judge put it to the court, is whether they deliberately deprived their son of the care he needed to survive, intending his death, or whether they were negligent without wishing that outcome.

From neglect to assassination. The parents were first charged with deprivation of care causing death without intent to kill. A pretrial chamber reclassified the case as murder, and the indictment chamber then raised it to assassination. Defence lawyers contest that classification. Gilles Viaene’s lawyer, Me Bruno, told the court that no neighbour raised an alarm in six years and that no inquiry was made at the schools attended by the couple’s five other children.

The warning signs. Esekia had been followed by the youth aid service (SAJ) since October 2019 and attended a specialised centre in Mons. Professionals described hygiene problems, repeated weight loss, inadequate feeding and a lack of cooperation, and some called the parents manipulative. “No medication has been dispensed since November 2022,” the lead investigator told the court, although the boy needed several treatments including Artane, which should not be stopped abruptly. On Feb. 8, 2023, the Mons centre ended its work with the family over failure to follow the care protocol. On April 26 the SAJ asked for the case to be referred to the courts. A month later Esekia was dead. When police searched the house on June 9 they found poor hygiene, an empty fridge, and the boy’s medical equipment stored in a box room, used partly as a coat rack.

The final hours. On the morning of May 30, the father told the mother their son had vomited twice; she put it down to the heat. At 1:23 p.m. he sent her a 15 second video showing the severely emaciated boy struggling to breathe, with the message “I’m panicking.” He called emergency services at 2:44 p.m., one hour and 21 minutes later. The video was played in court on Monday. “He’s suffocating,” one witness said. A toxicologist testified that no trace of Artane was found in samples taken after death, raising questions about whether it was given in his final days.

What the parents told investigators. Brizard denies responsibility but acknowledges shortcomings in his medical follow up, saying she worked and left much of his care to her partner. “I’m not a superhero,” she told the judge. The investigating judge said he felt she had been “overwhelmed.” Viaene acknowledged his son had not seen a doctor or physiotherapist for at least a year, that he missed appointments, replaced Artane with a homeopathic remedy, noticed the dramatic weight loss about a month earlier and did not act, which he attributed to laxity.

The experts. On Tuesday, Nov. 3, a psychiatrist and psychologist told the court neither parent has a mental illness, L’Avenir reported. They described Viaene, father of eleven children from several relationships, as immature and egocentric, with a criminal record for theft, drugs, forgery and fraud. Brizard, who has no record, was described as discreet and accommodating. The couple, together 17 years, were separating when Esekia died. On the morning of his death, the experts said, the parents refused help that was offered; Brizard could not explain why.

Case 11 / 14Préchac-sur-Adour, FranceFrance

Daniel Malagut, 76, on Trial Accused of Running Down Partner Sylvie Sanchez Three Times With His Car

Location: Cour d’assises du Gers, Auch, France; killing in Préchac-sur-Adour; fire in Galiax

Legal status: Charged with the murder of his partner and with setting fire to the couple’s house; in pretrial detention since Aug. 9, 2023; presumed innocent; verdict expected Thursday, Nov. 5

The trial. Daniel Malagut, 76, went on trial on Monday, Nov. 2, before the Gers assize court, accused of murdering his partner of 27 years, Sylvie Sanchez, 58, by deliberately running her down with his car on Aug. 3, 2023, in the village of Préchac-sur-Adour in southwest France. He is also charged with setting fire to the couple’s house in nearby Galiax afterward. He has been in pretrial detention since Aug. 9, 2023, and remains presumed innocent. The four day hearing is due to end with a verdict on Thursday, Nov. 5, La Dépêche du Midi reported.

The night of Aug. 3. According to the prosecution case as reported by La Dépêche, the couple, who were separating, spent part of the day together and had dinner at a restaurant. On the drive home an argument broke out. Malagut accelerated and threatened to cause a crash that would kill them both; Sanchez pulled the handbrake and ran, in heels. Around 9:30 p.m. witnesses saw a woman running and calling for help, a car pursuing her. She tried to shelter behind a gate. The car broke through it and struck her, then turned in the garden and hit her again as she tried to get up against a pillar, residents of the house told investigators. Three young people from the house opposite ran over; one clung to the driver’s door during the turn before letting go as the car accelerated away. The property’s owner, a forensic doctor, tried to help, but Sanchez was pronounced dead at 10:30 p.m.

The fire and the standoff. Malagut drove to the couple’s house in Galiax, a few kilometres away, and set it alight, prosecutors say. A neighbour told investigators he stood in front of the house holding a hunting rifle and told him to leave, saying his partner was dead. The GIGN tactical unit was called from Bordeaux. Malagut stayed inside the burning house until a shot rang out at 2:10 a.m.; officers found him seriously injured to the face. He was taken to hospital in Toulouse, then placed in custody and formally charged.

Warnings beforehand. Two months before her death, Sanchez reported death threats to the gendarmerie in Marciac. In July, weapons were seized and Malagut was hospitalised in psychiatric care without consent, a measure that ended on July 21, 2023. Questioned on July 31, three days before the killing, he admitted repeatedly making death threats and was summoned for an alternative criminal procedure on Nov. 5, 2023. Seven of Sanchez’s relatives, including her brother and sister, are civil parties and say the authorities did not properly assess the danger.

The defendant on the stand. The first day focused on his personality. A former forester with the National Forests Office, raised in Alsace, he met Sanchez in 1997 and left his wife to be with her. Known as “the bear,” he described himself as happy alone. His former wife and his daughter described a hardworking, generous man. But La Dépêche reported that, despite the presiding judge’s reminder that the facts would come later, he repeatedly attacked the dead woman. Of the Gers house: “It was crap and believe me, it burned well.” Of his health: “I left my skin at work while madame went out to look pretty.” An investigator said he had become intensely jealous, accusing her of infidelity.

What comes next. Investigators and eyewitnesses were scheduled to testify on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Case 13 / 14Erba, ItalyItaly

Ex Husband Carmine Civitillo Arrested in Death of Disabled Patrizia Monteleone, Found in Family Pool in September

Location: Buccinigo, Erba, province of Como, Lombardy, Italy; arrest in the province of Benevento

Legal status: Arrested on a precautionary custody order; under investigation for aggravated voluntary homicide; presumed innocent

The arrest. Carabinieri from the Como provincial command have arrested Carmine Civitillo, 76, on suspicion of murdering his former wife, Patrizia Monteleone, 64, whose death in the swimming pool of the family home in Erba on Sept. 27 had been presented as an accident. Civitillo, an entrepreneur, is under investigation for multiply aggravated voluntary homicide, according to Virgilio, citing ANSA. Prosecutors allege he smothered Monteleone, who used a wheelchair, and then pushed her into the water to simulate an accident. The precautionary custody order was carried out in the province of Benevento, where Civitillo is from and where he had moved after the house was placed under seizure. Virgilio dates the arrest to the evening of Saturday, Oct. 31; Corriere della Sera reported it at dawn on Nov. 1. He is presumed innocent and has not commented publicly.

The victim. Monteleone was left semi paralysed by a stroke in 2024 and could not move about on her own. The couple had separated about ten years ago, Corriere reported. A few months before her death she moved back into Civitillo’s house in Buccinigo, a hamlet of Erba, which he shared with their daughter, Eleonora, and her partner, while the family looked for other accommodation. Corriere said the couple’s three children had urged their father to help their mother. Civitillo had fitted out the ground floor for her.

The account that did not hold. Around midday on Sunday, Sept. 27, Civitillo called emergency services. He said he had left early, heading toward Lecco, leaving her in bed, and came back late in the morning to find her wheelchair beside the pool and her in the water. He called his eldest son, from an earlier relationship, who dived in to try to save her before paramedics arrived. She was already dead. From the first inspections investigators doubted that a woman who could not move independently could have reached the pool alone. Eleonora posted within hours that it had to be determined “whether it was her or someone else.”

The evidence. Prosecutor Alessandra Bellù ordered forensic and medical examinations, phone intercepts and analysis of video surveillance. The autopsy found lacerations around the mouth, which investigators say can be explained only by a hand pressed hard over it, likely to stop her screaming. According to Corriere, prosecutors believe he placed her in the wheelchair, took her to the pool, pressed his hand over her mouth, and pushed her in, where she drowned. Investigators say his movements show he lied: he was back home before 11 a.m., more than an hour before the call. At least one neighbour reportedly heard a woman’s voice calling for help at a time investigators link to the killing.

“Sooner or later I’ll drown you.” Corriere and RaiNews reported that the atmosphere at home was very tense and that Civitillo resented living with his former wife, as the children have described. “Prima o poi ti affogo,” sooner or later I’ll drown you, he allegedly told her more than once. Those statements are allegations from the investigation and have not been tested in court.

What comes next. Civitillo was taken to prison in Benevento. A preliminary investigations judge will review the custody order at a guarantee hearing, where he may respond to the allegations.