DA ruled mentally competent prosecute Larry Millete

Habeus Mens?

Author

By Walter Mencken

Publish Date

Oct. 7, 2022

DA Stephan says she realizes that convicting someone of murder without a body, a witness, or a confession isn’t easy, but, she says, “If I can work my arms free out of this straightjacket, then I can certainly get a jury to buy my case against Mr. Millette.”

Last week, San Diego Superior Court Judge Cindy Davis found Larry Millete mentally competent to stand trial for the murder of his wife Maya Millete, who disappeared in January of 2021. This was despite a doubt expressed by Millete’s own attorney as to her client’s competency. She also ruled that District Attorney Summer Stephan was mentally competent to prosecute the case, despite the purely circumstantial evidence against him. “In the case of Millete,” said Davis, “I was working from the report of a psychiatrist who examined him. In the case of Ms. Stephan — well, I just had to trust my gut, and ignore the old maxim that you don’t have to be crazy to go forward without habeus corpus, but it helps!"