Murder defendant Millete gives rare interview

Larry Millete spoke to ABC News 20/20 about an hour after a judge sentenced him to 25 years to life. The interview aired following his conviction for the killing of his wife, Maya Millete. Her body has never been recovered.

A jury returned a guilty verdict in July after a trial that lasted several weeks. Prosecutors argued that Millete hired spellcasters to make Maya love him. They claimed he later instructed them to hurt or incapacitate her so she would depend on him.

Millete said he sought the help of occult practitioners while trying to save his marriage. He described his search as a series of experiments. "I was just trying everything," he said. "So it started with a simple love spell thing, and next thing you know. I was trying not just that; I was trying the subliminal thing, and I was trying the marriage counseling thing, even the church thing."

Prosecutors stated that Maya was killed on January 7, 2021. They say Millete placed her body in his car the next day and drove to dispose of it. Millete disputes that timeline. He told ABC News he was at the beach with their youngest son.

He described a day spent in their vehicle at the beach. "When they said they heard a scraping noise, that's the red Walmart bucket, you know the, full of beach toys and a wetsuit," he said. Millete said they ate, slept, and played in the sand.

Millete questioned the authenticity of journal entries introduced during the trial. Maya wrote to her daughters in these letters, accusing their father of mental and physical abuse. Millete said he had never physically harmed her. "And I was like, it is her handwriting," he said.

Millete has agreed to meet with journalist Laura Acevedo for a one-on-one interview in jail on Thursday.