The man whose decade-spanning string of violent crimes shocked Northern California and became the subject of the Netflix documentary American Nightmare has received yet another life sentence—this time in Contra Costa County for a previously unreported 2015 kidnapping. The latest development adds to a mounting list of convictions for 48-year-old Matthew Muller, a disbarred Harvard-educated attorney whose criminal past includes a 1993 assault near Folsom Lake.
Last week Muller appeared in a Martinez courtroom, where he pleaded no contest to kidnapping a family during a home invasion in San Ramon. He was sentenced to seven years to life in prison by Judge David Goldstein. That term will be served consecutively with multiple life sentences already imposed for other home invasions, sexual assaults, and kidnappings in Santa Clara, Sacramento, and Solano counties, as well as a 40-year federal sentence for the 2015 abduction of Denise Huskins in Vallejo.
Muller first captured national attention following the Vallejo case, where he broke into the home of Huskins and her partner, Aaron Quinn, drugged and restrained them, then kidnapped Huskins and held her captive for two days in South Lake Tahoe before releasing her near her family’s home. The bizarre case, initially dismissed by law enforcement as a hoax, was later confirmed to be horrifyingly real—and was the centerpiece of the 2024 Netflix documentary that reignited interest in Muller’s other crimes.
That renewed focus led investigators to reexamine cold cases throughout Northern California, ultimately unearthing a confession to one of Muller’s earliest known assaults: the 1993 kidnapping and rape of a teenage girl camping near Folsom Lake.
In that case, which occurred when Muller was just 16 years old, he used a firearm to threaten two young campers in a tent. He tied up the male victim and abducted the female, whom he sexually assaulted in a wooded area near the lake. The case had remained unsolved for more than three decades until Sacramento County prosecutors reopened it using new forensic technology and pursued formal charges after Muller confessed during interviews conducted in 2024 while in custody in Arizona.
In June 2025, Muller pleaded guilty to the Folsom Lake attack and was sentenced to 11 years to life in prison, to be served consecutively with his existing terms. Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho called the resolution “a powerful reminder that the pursuit of justice never ends.”
“This was a horrific, calculated crime that forever impacted two young lives,” said Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Ore, who prosecuted the case. “Thanks to the tireless work of our cold case unit and advancements in forensic science, we’ve been able to hold Matthew Muller accountable for what he did in our community.”
Muller’s crimes span jurisdictions and decades, with convictions now on record in Sacramento, Santa Clara, Solano, El Dorado, and Contra Costa counties. Just this year alone, he has been sentenced in multiple cases stemming from a wave of home invasions and kidnappings committed between 1993 and 2015.
His most recent conviction in Contra Costa County came after he confessed to a long-buried 2015 kidnapping during a multi-day interview in Arizona. According to investigators, Muller broke into a home by using a ladder to reach a second-story window, held a family at gunpoint, and demanded ransom. Though the victims initially remained silent out of fear of retaliation, they later came forward following Muller’s arrest and media exposure.
El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson, who assisted in the reinvestigation, criticized the failures in earlier cases that allowed Muller to continue his crimes unchecked. “It’s a shame it has taken 10 years to correct the mistakes made in the original investigation that permitted Muller to terrorize two additional families,” Pierson said.
Muller, who is not eligible for parole on several of his sentences, will remain in prison indefinitely. His earliest federal release date is currently set for 2049, after which his state sentences will begin. Prosecutors say he is expected to die in prison.
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