According to the Sacramento County district attorney’s office, Matthew Muller, a convicted kidnapper whose crimes were featured in the Netflix documentary American Nightmare, entered a guilty plea on Wednesday to a second case of kidnapping and sexual assault involving a 32-year-old.
When a couple tented at Folsom Lake in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in 1993, a 16-year-old Muller threatened them with a rifle. According to the district attorney’s news release, Muller then bound the male victim before dragging the female victim away and sexually abusing her.
The news release also stated that the discovery of more evidence in the case was made possible by the district attorney’s Cold Case, Science & Technology Unit.
Muller, who is presently serving a 40-year prison sentence for a 2015 kidnapping and sexual assault in Vallejo, California, and a life sentence for two 2009 kidnappings and attacks in Santa Clara, has a history of similar sexual offenses, including this most recent conviction. American Nightmare was released last year and focused on the 2015 crimes and the faulty investigation that followed.
For the most recent conviction, Muller received a sentence of 11 years to life. Along with his other sentences, this one will be served in order.
California
In 2015, Vallejo police accused the victim and her boyfriend of fabricating the account of her captivity, and Matthew Muller was found guilty of both kidnapping and sexual assault. This Thursday, he entered guilty pleas in two more cases.
Muller drugged and handcuffed Aaron Quinn and Denise Huskins after breaking into their Vallejo house in 2015. After that, Muller took Huskins in Quinn’s vehicle and imprisoned her at his family’s South Lake Tahoe cottage for three days. Huskins was sexually abused by Muller until he finally let her go at Huntington Beach.
Before more of Muller’s crimes were discovered, Vallejo police and FBI officials accused Huskins of making up her charges. Before Muller was identified as the culprit following an attempted house invasion in Dublin, California, Huskins and Quinn were considered suspects.
Huskins told The Times earlier this year, “We knew there was more to this from the beginning, and it’s obvious how things were handled from the beginning led to a lot of errors.”
Court documents claim that Muller drugged his victims with a combination of Nyquil and a bottle of Diazepam and threatened to use violence against them if they did not comply. According to court filings, Muller’s strategies reportedly advanced following the 1993 kidnapping at gunpoint.
According to the news release, Muller, a former Marine and immigration lawyer with a Harvard degree, later acknowledged to police his role in the 1993 crimes.
This case serves as a potent reminder that justice is never truly achieved. In the statement, Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho stated that Matthew Muller’s admission to the horrifying 1993 kidnapping and sexual assault of a young girl offers long-overdue justice for the victims.
