Matthew Muller is a key character in the Netflix docuseries, “American Nightmare,” which tells the story of a high-profile California abduction case. That has a lot of fans of the show wondering where he is now.
This article will contain spoilers for the docuseries because the show closely tracks with real life.
In 2017, The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California, announced that Mueller, 39, of South Lake Tahoe “was sentenced today to 40 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley.”
Where is Muller, 46, today? He’s incarcerated at a federal prison in Tucson. His release date is July 8, 2049, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons.
According to Today, in 2022, he received another 31 years in prison for forcible rape and other charges in Solano County, which he is serving concurrently with the federal sentence.
As a result of that sentence, he also comes up in state of California Department of Corrections records.
As the Netflix series shows, The Vallejo Police Department, and its detective Mat Mustard, initially did not believe victims Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn, falsely believing the kidnapping was a hoax or that Quinn had harmed his girlfriend, Huskins.
“You treated me like an object, a toy, an animal,” Huskins told Muller during his sentencing hearing, according to NBC News.
Here’s what you need to know:
Matthew Muller Is a Disbarred Immigration Attorney Who Was Convicted of Abducting Denise Huskins
MugshotMatthew Muller.
According to Today, Muller was a “2006 graduate of Harvard University and a U.S. Marine from 1995 to 1999,” and he was “once a practicing immigration attorney in San Francisco.” He was disbarred after his arrest, Today reported.
The judge called the abduction a “heinous, atrocious, horrible crime,” according to NBC News. NBC News reported that Muller showed no emotion during the sentencing but said he was “sick with shame” for the “pain and horror” he had caused. His attorney told the judge Muller was “manic” and “depressive” and unsuccessfully asked for a lesser sentence, NBC News reported.
The U.S. Attorney’s press release gives the prosecutors’ version of events. It says:
According to court documents, between 3:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. on March 23, 2015, in Vallejo, Muller broke into the Mare Island home of Aaron Quinn and Denise Huskins. Armed with a stun gun and a simulated firearm with a laser sight, Muller ordered the victims to lie still while he bound them, blindfolded them, and forced them to drink a sedative. Muller played the victims a prerecorded message, which threatened that any noncompliance would be punished by face cutting or electric shock. Muller then placed Ms. Huskins in the trunk of a car and drove her to his residence in South Lake Tahoe. Once there, Muller kept her under his complete control, at times bound and blindfolded. Muller sent Mr. Quinn two emails demanding ransom for a total of $17,000. Muller released Ms. Huskins on March 25, 2015 in Huntington Beach, with no ransom ever being paid.
According to the news release, “During and after the kidnapping, Muller sent emails to a reporter in San Francisco that falsely claimed, among other things, that the kidnapping had been carried out by a group of elite criminals who were perfecting their kidnapping-for-ransom tactics.”
¿Dónde está ahora Matthew Muller de ‘American Nightmare’? t.co/NkZyOtWWb9
The case “remained unsolved until after June 8, 2015, when Dublin Police Services of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department arrested Muller and searched his South Lake Tahoe residence,: the release says. “The officers had been investigating a home invasion burglary, which led them to Muller’s residence where they located and seized evidence related to the Vallejo kidnapping.”
The United States Attorney Slammed Matthew Muller’s Conduct, Saying He ‘Used His Considerable Intelligence’ to Plan the ‘Physical Assault & Psychological Torture of 2 Innocent People’
Facing new state charges in bizarre Vallejo kidnapping case, Matthew Muller offers to plead guilty if accusers Denise Huskins & Aaron Quinn donate half their $2.5 million settlement to the Innocence Project, a non-profit that helps those wrongly convicted.
According to the news release, the FBI “then conducted its own follow-up investigation and searches that included Muller’s South Lake Tahoe residence, a vehicle in Reno, two other residences, and Muller’s Vallejo storage locker. The storage locker, which contained aerial drones referred to in Muller’s email to the media, had been located by an officer of the Vallejo Police Department.”
The release continues,
FBI analysis of Muller’s computers uncovered a sound recording that simulated people whispering to each other and a sound recording consistent with the instructions given to Mr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins. FBI analysts also discovered video recordings of Muller together with Ms. Huskins in his South Lake Tahoe residence. She was blindfolded and fully under Muller’s control. FBI analysts also discovered video recordings of Muller in his South Lake Tahoe residence arranging cameras in a bedroom, trying out their viewing angles, and then twice sexually assaulting the blindfolded Ms. Huskins.
In sentencing Muller, Judge Nunley referred to the defendant’s actions as heinous and held him responsible for his actions.
U.S. Attorney Talbert said in the release, “The sentence imposed today reflects the egregiousness of Muller’s conduct in this case. Muller had advantages in life that most people only dream of, yet he used his considerable intelligence to plan and execute the physical assault and psychological torture of two innocent strangers. It is difficult to imagine the level of suffering that Muller inflicted on his victims. The sentence handed down today takes into account that suffering and strives to ensure that Muller will never again commit such crimes.”
U.S. Attorney Talbert also said, “This serious violent crime was solved because Alameda County authorities responded so effectively to the Dublin burglary and then provided the evidence necessary for the effective federal investigation and prosecution of this case. The quality of local and federal investigative work is reflected in Muller’s two criminal convictions in Alameda County and in the Eastern District of California. I am grateful for the outstanding cooperation between the FBI, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department, the Alameda County District Attorney, and the Vallejo Police Department.”
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