"American Nightmare" kidnapper Matthew Muller gets 2 life sentences in South Bay home invasions
Matthew Muller, who is
serving a 40-year sentence
for the kidnapping of Denise Huskins, was sentenced to two consecutive life terms Friday by a Santa Clara County judge in connection with a pair of 2009 home invasions in the South Bay.
A release
from the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office Thursday morning
confirmed the sentencing. Muller's sentencing hearing was held in Santa Clara County Superior Court at 8:30 a.m., according to court records.
"I am today so thankful for the bravery of these women," District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in the release. "We marvel at the growing power of forensics, the never-say-die determination of investigators and prosecutors. But this case is about victims who never gave up."
Muller
pled guilty in January
to the charges stemming from the home invasions in Mountain View and Palo Alto 15 years ago. In both cases, he was suspected of medicating and then sexually assaulting the female victims involved.
In the Mountain View case, the District Attorney said Muller broke into the female victim's home in the early hours of Sept. 29, 2009. Muller attacked her, tied her up, made her drink a concoction of medications, and told he was going to rape her. The victim persuaded Muller against it, after which he suggested the victim get a dog before fleeing the scene.
The following month on Oct. 18, 2009, he broke into a Palo Alto home, where the DA's office said he bound and gagged a woman in her 30s and forced her to drink Nyquil. Muller began to assault her, before again being persuaded to stop by the victim. In that case, Muller provided the woman with crime prevention advice before he fled the home.
Muller, a Sacramento-area native, was convicted in the Vallejo kidnapping of Huskins in 2015. He is currently serving his sentence in Arizona for rape and false imprisonment in what police initially thought was a hoax.
The
Netflix documentary "American Nightmare"
detailed the crime and investigation, rekindling interest in the case last year. The documentary led to criticism of Vallejo police for their handling of the kidnapping.
In December, the Santa Clara County district attorney
brought forth new charges
, claiming Muller broke into the homes of women in Mountain View and Palo Alto 15 years ago and was suspected of medicating and then sexually assaulting both women.
Muller appeared in court on January 17, 2025, and pled guilty to the new charges.
In February, the Contra Costa District Attorney's Office announced they filed charges against Muller for a previously unreported San Ramon-area kidnapping for ransom in 2015. That crime allegedly happened two weeks after Muller released Huskins, but the DA's office said it was so traumatic the family never reported it – fearing he, or other attackers, would come back.
In
an exclusive interview with CBS News California
earlier this year, Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn detailed the timeline of Muller's cold-case crimes, which they helped solve. The survivors detailed how it took a decade, the Netflix documentary, a small-town police chief, and a rural district attorney to get anyone to listen.
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