TikTok star accused of hiring hit man. Hemlock and magic spells at a murder trial. Plus, the Bexley Box.

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0:58Good morning, everyone. You're listening in to the Dateline story meeting. Okay, so let's jump in. Our producers are catching up on breaking crime news. Do you think there's going to be cameras in the trial? We're all on track with this. Everyone is losing their minds over this story. Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly. I'm Andrea Canning. It's May 28th, and here's what's on our docket. In San Diego County, California, it's week two in the murder trial of a man accused of paying people to cast magic spells on his wife. I can't remember a time that we talk about magic or spells in general when we're talking about homicide trials.

1:38In Dateline Roundup, we've got the latest from the courtroom in the case of Barry Morphew, a Colorado man accused of murdering his wife using animal tranquilizers. And a New Jersey businessman convicted of murdering his own brother and his brother's family faces the judge at his sentencing. You are a quadruple murderer who slaughtered innocent children. That is the identity you will carry for the remainder of your life behind prison walls. Plus, the widow of a man murdered in front of their two-year-old child tells us about her campaign to bring comfort to children who end up alone and scared at the police station.

2:15So as I reflected on that night, wishing that there had been more to comfort her, that she had a diaper that fit her, I just thought we have to do something. But before all that, we're off to Los Angeles, where a TikTok star has been charged with attempting to take out a hit on her ex.

2:34Beautiful lifestyle influencer Gabby Gonzalez has built a devoted following on social media, documenting her life in Hawaii and beyond. Hundreds of thousands of followers tune in to the 24-year-old's posts about exotic travel, beachy fashion, music. Every day my favorite song keeps changing, but this was my favorite song on day two. And even motherhood. Where are we going to put it? In the castle. In the hot ring? Yeah. Okay. She seemed to have it all, but now Gabby is attracting attention for all the wrong reasons. Allegations of conspiracy to commit murder. L.A. prosecutors accusing a TikTok star of trying to hire somebody off the dark web to kill her ex.

3:16Gabby's ex and the alleged target, Jack Avery, is a former member of the boy band Why Don't We. He is also the father of Gabby's child. Prosecutors in Los Angeles say back in 2020, Gabby embarked on a years-long quest to find a hitman to kill Jack. and they allege she didn't act alone. Here to bring us up to speed on the alleged plot and what took so long to uncover it is NBC News breaking news reporter Matt Levitas. Matt, thanks for being here. Thank you. So Matt, let's start with some background on Gabby Gonzalez. We know she's this beautiful influencer. Tell us more about her. She's this 24-year-old from Florida.

4:03She has hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and on Instagram, and like you just said, She posts these sort of glamorous shots of her in Hawaii, in her in California, in front of waterfalls, and recording her on vacation with her young daughter in Paris. She describes herself on her Instagram page as a lover of life and a mermaid at heart. Yeah, it's ironic because everything in her posts, I was scrolling through the years and everything is so light. So, Matt, what do we know about her relationship with Jack Avery, this ex of hers who was in the boy band? Yeah, so they dated in the late 2010s when they were both teenagers.

4:48Their relationship was brief. They had a child together in 2019. And really since then, they've been in this contentious custody battle with Gabby, accusing Jack Avery of being this sort of unfit father. What did Jack Avery have to say about this dispute? He actually addressed it on X and on TikTok, describing the allegations against him as false accusations and painful attacks. What happened with the legal side of things with regards to this custody dispute over their daughter? We don't have those details, but what we do know from the prosecution in this case is that Gonzalez wanted full custody of their daughter and she did not get that.

5:34Yeah, so this actually became a part of the prosecutor's felony complaint that, you know, this was a possible motive. So as we mentioned off the top, Gabby, according to prosecutors, was not acting alone. Who do they say she was allegedly plotting with to take out Jack with a hitman? So prosecutors are alleging that Gabby plotted with her father, Francisco Gonzalez, who's the successful personal injury attorney in Florida, and her boyfriend at the time back in 2020 and 2021, a young man by the name of Kai Corddry, who lives in Hawaii. And prosecutors allege that Francisco, Gabby's dad, was sort of funding this whole scheme, right?

6:19So in April of 2021, he transferred$10 ,000 to Kai Corddry for the purpose of hiring this hitman. Okay, and then prosecutors say Kai then took that money and searched for a possible hitman on the dark web. Right. So after receiving the money, Kai in May of 2021, according to prosecutors, signed up for a dark web murder for hire site using the alias LizardKing69. And he asked for Jack Avery to be killed by, quote, whatever method was easiest. And that included a shooting or some sort of staged accident. Wow. In September 2021, the FBI came into the picture. Tell us how they get involved. Right.

7:03So prosecutors say that at some point, Kai made contact with this undercover FBI agent who was posing as a hitman and that the FBI recorded the phone call between these two suggesting that Kai wanted the plot to take place and that he was acting at the behest of his girlfriend at the time, Gabby Gonzalez. And by December of 2021, Francisco Gonzalez also got on the phone with an undercover FBI agent. These are wild accusations, Matt. But this alleged plot never came to fruition. Jack Avery is alive and well. What went right, if you will, for Jack that this did not happen? So the last we know about this case, what the prosecution laid out that Gonzalez and Kai spoke about the matter over the phone in October of 2022 with Gabby suggesting that she had some concerns that they were going to get caught.

7:59We know that a month later, November of 2022, her home was searched and raided by the FBI. But we don't know what happened from then until now. And that's sort of the large question here. Why was no action taken? Yeah, because that was three and a half years ago. It's very interesting, you know, to think like what has transpired in these years. Gabby and her dad were arrested just last week and Kai was arrested over the weekend. Right. So that's what I've been asking the authorities in Los Angeles. And, you know, they keep pointing me to this statement that they gave us last week. The L.A. DA Nathan Hockman said that, quote, this was a lengthy investigation that was initiated by the FBI and eventually turned over to our office, resulting in criminal charges being filed.

8:48Has there been any comment from any of the defendants? We have not heard a peep from any of them. They have not entered pleas to our knowledge. We know that Francisco was arrested in his home state of Florida and extracted to California. We know that Gabby is out on$2 million bail that she posted. And as a condition of that bail, she is not allowed to have any contact with her daughter or to post about the case on social media. We know that she is expected to make her plea this summer. All right, more hearings to come on this. And if convicted, they face the possibility of 25 years to life in state prison.

9:31Matt, thank you for coming on. Thank you for having me. Coming up, five years after a woman disappeared from her California home, her body has still not been found, but her husband is on trial for her alleged murder. Prosecutors say he may have used hemlock to kill her.

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11:58Chula Vista is a city in San Diego County known for its peaceful neighborhoods and suburban charm. In Spanish, the name means beautiful view. But what happened to a working mom on a winter's day back in 2021 would cast a dark shadow over the area. Thursday, January 7th, a security camera captured 39-year-old Maya Miliete pulling into the driveway of the house she shared with her husband Larry and their three young children. But investigators say there is no footage of Maya ever leaving the house after that. Five years later, Larry is now on trial for her alleged murder. Prosecutors believe he killed Maya, but can't say for certain how or where he disposed of her body because it has never been found.

12:44What they do point to is a trail of evidence they say includes poison, an alleged affair, and even magic spells. Larry's defense attorney, on the other hand, says there is no proof Maya is even dead. And if she is, there were other people who may have killed her, like her married lover. As Larry's trial enters its second week, NBC7 investigative reporter Alexis Rivas is here to tell us more about the proceedings so far. which, Alexis, includes a call you got from Larry himself right in the middle of trial. That's right. I definitely wasn't expecting that, and it's definitely a first for me. Yeah.

13:22Well, thank you for joining us. We're going to get to that in just a moment. But you've been covering this story from the very beginning. Give us a sense of who Larry and Maya were before all this happened, at least who they seemed to be to the outside world. Well, they got married very young. They were teenagers in Hawaii. Eventually, through the Navy, Larry gets relocated over to Southern California. Maya goes with. And they both wind up working very successful jobs. He's in optometry. She's an administrative specialist for the Navy. And from photos, they had kind of the perfect family. As we talked about off the top of the segment, the last confirmed sighting of Maya was when she was captured on her neighbor's security camera, pulling into her driveway.

14:08Maya's sister reports her missing a few days later. That's right. So she had her daughter's 11th birthday coming up. There was a big family trip that they were all supposed to go on together in Big Barrett. And then just a couple of days before this trip, she stops responding to anyone. It seemed completely out of character. Ultimately, her sister drove down to Maya's house and insisted that she go inside and see what was going on. And that's when she called 911. Maya's sisters and brothers started vigils and searches and trying to find her. That's right. I mean, we saw hundreds of people from Chula Vista come out looking for Maya very early on.

14:43Notably not at those events was Larry Meliette. And that's something that police mentioned when they initially arrested him about nine months after she managed. Which brings us to this trial that has been five years in the making. Assistant District Attorney Christy Bowles gave the prosecution's opening statement. And she painted a picture of a marriage in serious trouble. You absolutely get that picture. when you listen to her friends and her co-workers have started to take the stand and her family members. Everyone kind of said that she said that she was done with him. And there was also the fact that he had found out she had an affair with a co-worker.

15:18And after that, he sort of started to engage in behavior, constantly asking other people to help him, convince her to stay in the marriage. And he also reached out to something called a spellcaster. Yeah. Yeah. This is something that I think makes this case particularly unique. I can't remember a time that we talk about magic or spells in general when we're talking about homicide trials that we've never here in San Diego. Yeah, no. But Larry Meliente spent thousands of dollars requesting spell after spell after spell from a couple of spellcasters. If you talk to the prosecution, they say it shows that he had intent to harm his wife.

15:58And in fact, one of the spells was he was willing to ask for Maya's bones to be broken so that she wouldn't leave the house and be reliant on him. But if you talk to the defense, they'll say all these spells show that he was just in love with her and so badly wanted to keep her and hold her close. Seems bizarre. The prosecutors do have a lot of missing pieces as to how they believe this alleged murder happened. What are they telling the jury? Oh, up front in the opening statements, the prosecution said, we're not going to be able to tell you how she died. We don't have a body in this case. But they've thrown out a couple of things.

16:33They said there were some suspicious Google searches Larry was making about poison, what kind of poison acts the quickest, is there a plant poison where you never wake up. And the big moment in trial came when they talked about a vial where they tested it for hemlock. And according to the prosecution, the results came back positive, and investigators found this vial in the house, right? Well, it wasn't right away. It wasn't during the initial search of the house. The defense said that they tested that multiple times and that the vial came back negative for Hemlock three out of the four. So they're arguing it's inconclusive.

17:06What other theories did the prosecution have for the jury about Maya's cause of death? There's testimony. She had been talking to friends leading up to her disappearance about how Larry had once choked her to a point of unconsciousness. That might explain why there's no direct forensic evidence. And then last but not least, a neighbor told police that they heard nine gunshots and they have surveillance video. However, the FBI said the video just wasn't good enough quality to confirm or identify those sounds as gunshots. So there's different kinds of ways that they're sort of hinting this might have happened.

17:38But the reality is no one really knows yet what happened to Maya and where is she now? Alexis, we've talked about this alleged affair with a coworker. The affair is confirmed. According to the prosecution, they said that Maya and a co-worker named Jamie Laird began having an extramarital affair. So you have the affair playing into Larry's motive. But on the flip side, you've got the defense saying there's a couple of loose ends on the other side of that affair that should have warranted some investigating of more people than just Larry. In their opening statement, Larry's defense team suggested that Jamie Laird had acted suspiciously around the time of Maya's disappearance.

18:18That's right. And something the defense has pointed out that I think we didn't know until last week. Their anniversary of their affair is the day that Maya vanished, January 7th. And Jamie Laird stopped texting Maya after Maya vanished. Granted, his wife, who was pregnant at the time of their affair, gave birth on January 8th. So there could be a variety of reasons, right? But there is also the fact that when police eventually did talk to him, he had a new phone. The wife's phone was investigated. but her mother also, apparently there's reports that she was harassing Maya. So you have some other people here that we really never learned very much about at all until now.

18:58The prosecution alluded that we're going to hear from these people. There's so much interest in them. I think they have to bring them to the stand, and I think they're going to have to eliminate them as suspects if they're going to eliminate any reasonable doubt, according to some of the experts that we've talked to. So that's the nuts and bolts of the cases so far for both sides. But before you go, Alexis, let's talk about one moment that stopped the trial in its tracks. Maya's dad was on the stand. Yes. Her father was, I think, one of the most difficult things to witness in a courtroom. He's just answering questions about kind of some of Larry's behavior.

19:31And then he just stops answering questions altogether. And he starts crying and screaming at Larry and pointing at him and saying, you're a murderer. Why did you do this to my daughter? Why did you do it? And Larry's own defense attorney starts crying. And so because she's crying, she's worried about how that looks in front of the jury. So she calls for a mistrial. Oh, my gosh. And it comes close. We come back, though, and the judge asks the jury if they can basically disregard the accusations of murderer that they watched. The jury says that they can do that. And we decide to keep moving forward.

20:03And it's kind of a couple hours after that that my phone rings from the county. It's Larry. It's Larry. Why is he calling you in the middle of a trial? I know after the fact now that his attorneys had no idea he was doing this, but mainly Larry wanted to talk about the fact that he doesn't think he's getting a fair trial. He is really worried about the jury for a couple reasons. As they were going through selecting jurors, 80 percent of them had already heard about the case. And he didn't like that this emotional raw moment with Maya's father happened right in front of the jury. And he is worried about that.

20:39Yeah. Alexis, wow, this trial is absolutely fascinating. I look forward to having you back on to see how this all unfolds. Well, thank you so much for having me. Up next, it's time for Dateline Roundup. Barry Morphew, the Colorado man accused of murdering his wife with animal tranquilizers, appears in court. And the New Jersey businessman convicted of murdering four members of his own family learns his fate. Plus, a mother's mission to bring comfort to young children who find themselves alone at the police station. festival season is here and apple cash is an easy and secure way to split the bill just send a request money right in your group chat in the messages app once you're settled up you can spend the money you receive anywhere apple pay is accepted open your wallet app and set up apple cash today apple cash services are provided by green dot bank member fdic

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22:34Welcome back. Joining me for this week's Roundup is Dateline producer Haley Barber. Thanks for being here, Haley. Thanks for having me. So Haley, first we are heading to Colorado where Barry Morphew, a man who has been accused of murdering his wife with a cocktail of animal tranquilizers, was back in court recently. And Haley, you have been reporting on this case since it broke. Give us a quick refresher on this one. Yeah, absolutely. So Barry's 49-year-old wife, Suzanne, went missing on Mother's Day back in 2020. and her mountain bike was found in a ravine close to the house and her helmet was actually in a different location.

23:12You were actually there, Haley, as hundreds of people started searching for Suzanne. What was Barry saying at the time about what might have happened? Barry actually, in a video that was posted on Facebook at the time, he made a kind of very emotional appeal asking for tips and begging for Suzanne to come home. Oh, Suzanne, if anyone is out there that can hear this, that has you, please, we'll do whatever it takes to bring you back. We love you. We miss you. Your girls need you. A year later, however, Barry was arrested and charged with Suzanne's murder. Her body had not been found. Why did investigators zero in on him?

23:53Investigators say they learned the marriage was in trouble. Suzanne wanted out. She had told friends she was afraid of Barry. Barry insisted that he was innocent. And about nine days before trial, the case against him imploded when the judge ruled that the prosecution had failed to hand over evidence to the defense. The charges against Barry were ultimately dropped at the time. Haley, how did Barry end up getting charged a second time? Because it wasn't over. Yeah. In 2023, three years after Suzanne went missing, her remains were found. An autopsy indicated that she had animal tranquilizers in her system.

24:31And according to prosecutors, it's a very rare drug that's used just to specifically tranquilize deer. It's not something that's very easy for just your irregular citizen to get. Investigators were able to determine that Barry Morphew had that chemical within four years of Suzanne's disappearance. Barry was arrested for a second time, and he has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. He's actually out on bail and he's awaiting the start of his trial, which will begin in October. Let's get the latest from the courtroom. Berry's defense team has filed 31 pretrial motions. Seems like a lot of motions.

25:10What are they arguing? Yeah, a lot of them are run-of-the-mill motions. You know, there are motions to get more information about the backgrounds of prospective jurors. Also a couple that stood out to me, including one in which they talk about these kind of statements that Suzanne had made, which are basically some text messages she was sending to friends at the time. Barry is not being nice to me. I'm very concerned about the status of our relationship. OK, we'll definitely keep an eye on that case as we get closer to the October trial date. Our next story is in New Jersey where 59-year-old convicted killer Paul Canaro appeared in court last week for his sentencing.

25:52He was convicted back in February for the 2018 murders of his younger brother Keith, Keith's wife, and their two young children. Haley, what was happening in the courtroom during sentencing? Yeah, the courtroom was packed with family members, Andrea, and, you know, based on local reporting we're seeing, it looks like he was just kind of stone-faced sitting there as the judge ultimately sentenced him. Yeah, there he is, you know, once a businessman, now he's wearing a yellow jumpsuit. It's quite the fall from grace. There were several emotional statements from the family. Paul did not just take Keith and his family's lives.

26:27He tried to seal the man, the legacy of a man whose character, compassion, and integrity he could never, ever come close to being. Haley, did Paul give a statement at all? Paul did not speak, and his defense informed the judge that he maintains his innocence and he didn't wish to say anything in court. Before he handed down the sentence, the judge walked through the events of the murders. Let's take a listen to Judge Lemieux. You are no longer Paul Canaro. You are an intimate number in the Department of Corrections. You are a quadruple murderer who slaughtered innocent children. That is your identity.