Guilty plea in woman’s abduction in Vallejo
The Harvard Law School grad who orchestrated a terrifying kidnapping for ransom last year on Vallejo’s Mare Island admitted to the abduction Thursday morning in a federal courtroom in Sacramento.
But while 39-year-old Matthew Muller’s guilty plea to one count of kidnapping may begin to resolve part of the criminal matter, the victims, Denise Huskins, 30, and Aaron Quinn, 31, want to see the investigators who initially dismissed the crime as a hoax held accountable.
Muller, a disbarred San Francisco immigration attorney who served in the Marines, on Thursday agreed to “take responsibility” for the
crime, as part of a plea deal with prosecutors, his attorney, Tom Johnson, said.
In exchange for the guilty plea, the U.S. Attorney’s Office will not recommend Muller be sentenced to a prison term longer than 40 years.
“Muller committed a serious and violent crime that terrorized the victims in this case,” said acting U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert. “He violated the sanctity of their home and caused fear and panic for all those affected by the kidnapping.”
The prosecutors’ sentencing recommendation, though, is only one factor U.S. District Court Judge Troy Nunley will consider when handing down punishment during a hearing scheduled for Jan. 19.
Nunley will also consider federal sentencing guidelines, a presentencing report from the federal probation department and impact statements from the victims. Huskins and Quinn will speak during the sentencing hearing, family members said.
Following Muller’s guilty plea, the couple made a rare public appearance with Huskins’ San Francisco attorney, Doug Rappaport, who implored the judge to issue a life sentence while blasting investigators in the case. Quinn and a teary-eyed Huskins remained silent, holding hands.
“They said within hours of her release that she and Aaron had perpetrated a hoax and turned them into public pariahs,” Rappaport said. “How is it that in such an important case, you have such a poor investigation?”
He went on to reveal that the lead FBI agent investigating the crime, David Sesma, had a “personal relationship” with Quinn’s ex-fiancee, who was the intended target of the kidnapping, not Huskins.
Rappaport was initially hired as Huskins’ defense attorney when police became suspicious of her story.
Huskins turned up safe at her father’s home in Huntington Beach (Orange County), two days after being taken from Quinn’s residence in the early-morning hours of March 23, 2015.
“It was deplorable the torment she had to go through after the inhuman conduct she went through during the course of the kidnapping,” Rappaport said.
Detectives first suspected Quinn in the disappearance after he called police saying he had been drugged, and Huskins’ kidnapper was demanding a seemingly small $8,500 ransom.
A day after the disappearance, The Chronicle received a “proof of life” statement from Huskins. The next day when she turned up safe and told police she had been sexually assaulted, investigators called the episode bogus.
“Sesma took me aside and said, ‘I bet you 99 percent she’s lying, and I intend to prosecute her,’ ” Rappaport said.
When Vallejo police publicly called the episode “an orchestrated event,” The Chronicle began receiving emails from a person claiming to be the kidnapper.
The writer, believed to be Muller, said he was part of a group of “Ocean’s Eleven, gentlemen criminals,” who ran an auto-theft ring on Mare Island. In one message, he said he intended to kidnap Quinn’s ex-fiancee, who he mistakenly thought was in the house, but took Huskins.
Muller, a stranger to Huskins and Quinn, has never revealed why he targeted the couple.
He is suspected in several similar home invasions around the Bay Area.
In June 2015, Muller was captured after he left his cell phone behind during a Dublin breakin. Authorities used the phone to track him to his parents’ vacation home in South Lake Tahoe, where police uncovered evidence linking him to the Vallejo kidnapping.
He pleaded no contest to the Dublin crime in September 2015 in Alameda Superior Court and still awaits sentencing, which he will serve concurrently with any federal prison time.
Johnson on Thursday said he hopes to “get Muller out one day.”
Since being jailed, Muller has been taking mood stabilizers, antipsychotic medication and antidepressants.
“Once he got into a controlled environment, the reality of this situation became clear,” Steve Reed, a retired member of the Sacramento Police Department and family friend of Muller said outside court.
After months of anguish, Thursday’s guilty plea brought some relief to the family members of the victims.
“I feel pretty good about the agreement,” Quinn’s mother, Marianne Quinn, said outside court. “Muller is a dangerous guy, and Aaron and Denise are relieved they won’t have to testify.”
Still frustrated at law enforcement, she added, “There won’t be real justice until the people who botched this whole thing are held accountable.”
Huskins and Aaron Quinn have filed a federal civil lawsuit against the city of Vallejo and its police department for civil rights violations. Thursday’s guilty plea will pave the way for that case to move forward.