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Published on January 17, 2025
Matthew Muller Pleads Guilty to 2009 Mountain View and Palo Alto Sexual Assaults, Faces Life SentencesSource: Dublin Police Department

Matthew Muller, the man behind a sequence of home invasions and sexual assaults dating back to 2009, entered a guilty plea for his heinous actions. According to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office, Muller, now 47, faces a life sentence for each of the two felony counts of committing a sexual assault during a home invasion that terrorized victims in Mountain View and Palo Alto.

It was in the early hours of September 29, 2009, when Muller first struck, attacking a woman in her Mountain View home, and later, on October 18, 2009, a home in Palo Alto became his next target, where he assaulted another woman after binding and gagging her. Both cases remained unsolved for years.

Matthew Muller's criminal pursuits reached national attention with the abduction of Denise Huskins from Vallejo in 2015, a case that was the focus of the Netflix documentary series "American Nightmare." Muller's 2016 guilty plea to the kidnapping was followed by a 2022 plea for the sexual assaults of Ms. Huskins, further solidifying his pattern of predatory behavior. His spree eventually culminated with his arrest in June of the same year following a violent home invasion in Dublin.

District Attorney Jeff Rosen expressed resolution in the wake of Muller's plea, stating, as per the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office, "This extremely dangerous person left a trail of traumatized and terrified victims," and praised the collective courage of the victims and the determination of law enforcement officers to end this protracted nightmare; Muller's sentencing is set for February 21 at 9 a.m. in Department 34. Muller also faces kidnapping for ransom charges in Contra Costa County.