'American Nightmare' attacker Matthew Muller sentenced to 2 life terms in South Bay home invasions

A Santa Clara County judge on Friday sentenced Matthew Muller, who kidnapped and sexually assaulted Denise Huskins in an ordeal that Vallejo police initially branded a hoax, to two consecutive life terms after he pleaded guilty to invading two South Bay homes many years ago.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A Santa Clara County judge on Friday sentenced Matthew Muller, who kidnapped and sexually assaulted Denise Huskins in an ordeal that Vallejo police initially branded a hoax, to two consecutive life terms after he pleaded guilty to invading two South Bay homes many years ago.

Violent and vicious South Bay attacks

Muller had no visible reaction after Judge Cynthia A. Sevley issued her sentence and told him that his crimes were violent and vicious, and that he was a threat to society.

Muller’s two life sentences in a California state prison will begin when he finishes his 40-year federal sentence in the Huskins kidnap case, in 2049.

Against his attorney’s advice, Muller admitted in January that 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.

Jane Doe 1

One of the 2009 victims, Jane Doe 1, read an impact statement at the court hearing, describing how Muller broke into her home in the middle of the night, threatening her that he would gag her and inject her with drugs.

She testified that he blindfolded her and questioned her for hours about her friends and family.

"I felt powerless by someone I couldn't see," she testified.

In the following months, she said she couldn't sleep and was terrified to go outside or take a shower.

That lack of sleep made her feel broken. She began to feel afraid of her male co-workers. She is still in therapy today and moved out of that home.

"I’m hyper-vigilant about security," she testified, adding that she moves furniture in front of hotel room doors for added security.

She testified that during the attack, Mulller apologized to her, saying he knew this would mess her up and advised her to get a dog.

The second victim, identified as Jane Doe 2, sent in a written statement, describing a similar attack, where Muller attacked her in her bed and smothered her with a pillow.

"He seemed to be pleased in being powerful and tormenting me," the statement read. "He had pinned me on my stomach and was about to rape me but got obsessed with Zip ties."

She wrote that "it became clear I was dealing with a sick person taking pleasure in terrifying me."

She said she was able to convince him that she had been raped and "he lost interest."

Jane Doe 2

Like the first victim, Jane Doe 2 said she has undergone intensive therapy and the assault had an impact on her doctorate and career path.

"Every night for five years I would relive the assault," she said. "My body would curl up and freeze and my mind would reply events. I learned to recognize these symptoms would always happen."

Jane Doe 2 said when she learned Muller had been sentenced in the Huskins case, she had a panic attack.

"No one should suffer or fear suffering from him ever again," she wrote.

Huskins kidnap case

These South Bay crimes were committed years before another high-profile case that made Muller infamous.

In 2015, 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.

Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Brian King., 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.