'American Nightmare' attacker Matthew Muller pleads guilty in South Bay home invasions
'American Nightmare' attacker Matthew Muller facing life in prison after pleading guilty in South Bay home invasions
Matthew Muller pleads guilty to invading woman's homes in Mountain View and Palo Alto in 2009, six years before kidnapping Denise Huskins in Vallejo in ordeal initially deemed a hoax.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Matthew Muller, who kidnapped and sexually assaulted Denise Huskins in an ordeal that Vallejo police initially branded a hoax, faces life in prison after pleading guilty Friday to invading two South Bay homes years earlier.
"Today, Matthew Muller pled guilty to all charges he’s facing in Santa Clara County," said Deputy District Attorney Brian King.
Against his attorney’s advice, Muller admitted he broke into homes in Mountain View and Palo Alto a month apart in 2009.
In each case, prosecutors say he confronted a woman, tied her up and gave her medication to drug her, intending to sexually assault her, only to back off when she pleaded for him not to. He told one woman to get a dog and gave the other similar crime-prevention advice.
"We are hopeful that this conviction today brings healing and closure to the victims of these crimes," King said.
The women had to wait 15 years for justice.
"We commend the incredible courage and strength of the victims and their resiliency in the face of the crimes that were committed against them," King said.
In 2015, six years after the South Bay attacks, Huskins was kidnapped in Vallejo by an intruder who then raped her in a South Lake Tahoe cabin. But she and now-husband Aaron Quinn were branded hoaxsters by Vallejo police because many of the details of their ordeal were deemed too farfetched.
Muller was later convicted and sentenced to decades in prison in that case, which was profiled in the Netflix docuseries "American Nightmare."
The couple is now married with two children and have provided training to law enforcement, urging them not to fall victim to tunnel vision.
"They used that experience and turned it into a force for good, in collaborating with police departments to make sure what happened to them never happens again," King said.
The prosecutor, along with Mountain View and Palo Alto police, visited Muller in federal prison in Tucson in October to help tie him to the Santa Clara cases.
"It was a unique experience. Mr. Muller was willing to provide information about many incidents," King said.
Muller was also recently charged by Contra Costa County prosecutors with kidnapping three victims for ransom near San Ramon. That case is still pending.
Muller is expected to be sentenced on Feb. 21 to life in prison.
Henry Lee is a KTVU crime reporter. E-mail Henry at Henry.Lee@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @henrykleeKTVU and www.facebook.com/henrykleefan.