A MAN WHOSE ABDUCTION of a Vallejo woman led to the “American Nightmare” Netflix documentary series was sentenced to at least seven more years in prison for a separate case involving the kidnapping of three people near San Ramon.
Matthew Muller appeared in a Martinez courtroom to change his plea to no contest in the 2015 kidnapping for ransom case that went unreported for nearly a decade.
The crimes only came to light through Muller’s 2024 confession while he was serving a 40-year prison sentence for the Vallejo kidnapping and rape of Denise Huskins, a case that drew widespread media attention.
According to the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office, in spring 2015, Muller kidnapped two male victims and one female and demanding that one of the captives withdraw more than $30,000 from their bank account to release all three.
Muller fled after receiving the money. Fearing retribution, the victims never reported the crime and chose to remain anonymous.
Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge David Goldstein on Thursday sentenced Muller to a negotiated sentence of seven years to life in prison, adding to Muller’s existing 40-year federal sentence, as well as sentences for offenses committed in Santa Clara and Sacramento counties.
Muller, 48, is serving his sentence in a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona. He won’t be able to petition a parole board until he is in his late 80s or early 90s, prosecutors said.
The Contra Costa County abduction occurred the same year as that of Huskins, whose ordeal made headlines when Vallejo police said they suspected the kidnapping was staged.
Muller, a former U.S. Marine, broke into a Vallejo home on March 23, 2015, and tied up Huskins and her boyfriend.
Muller took Huskins to a South Lake Tahoe cabin, where he sexually assaulted her. Two days later, he drove her to Southern California and released her.
Authorities initially believed the kidnapping was a hoax perpetrated by Huskins’ boyfriend, generating comparisons to the novel and film “Gone Girl.”
Muller was also charged in December in two 2009 home invasions and sexual assaults in Mountain View and Palo Alto and was sentenced in March to a life term, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.
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