Legal proceedings advance for kidnapper of Vallejo couple
Matthew D. Muller, 42, returns to Department 2 on Feb. 6 in the Justice Buillding in Vallejo
Legal proceedings continue to advance toward a jury trial for the suspect in a bizarre 2015 Vallejo kidnapping case that made national headlines.
Matthew Daniel Muller, 42, sentenced in 2017 in Sacramento to 40 years in federal prison for kidnapping a Vallejo couple and raping the female victim before releasing her near her family’s Southern California home, appeared Dec. 27 for a trial readiness conference in Department 2 in the Justice Building in Vallejo.
As previously scheduled, Muller and his defense attorney, Dustin Gordon, will return at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 6 for several matters: a 1538.5 motion for the exclusion of evidence that was obtained through an unlawful search and seizure and have it returned; another unspecified motion; another trial readiness conference; and a motion to compel. Muller’s jury trial has long been set for 8:30 a.m. Sept. 21, also in Department 2.
The latest scheduled legal proceeding came nearly 11 months after a state preliminary hearing for Muller, formerly of Orangevale. He is charged with what can only can be described as a crime so incredible that Vallejo police at first considered it an elaborate hoax.
During the preliminary hearing, Muller, a former Marine and Harvardtrained lawyer, listened to the female victim in the case, Denise Huskins. She recounted some of the horrific events that began on March 23, 2015, when the defendant entered the Mare Island home belonging to Huskins and Aaron Quinn, who are in their 30s.
Federal court records indicate that Muller restrained them with zip ties, blindfolds and headphones, then drugged them both. Muller left Quinn behind in the home with a warning that he was being watched on camera and told him not to call the police. Muller placed Huskins into the trunk of Quinn’s car, then drove off and switched vehicles, with Huskins still blindfolded, driving her to a South Lake Tahoe family home, where he raped her twice. Muller held her for two days before driving her to Southern California, where he released her near her family’s Huntington Beach home.
Vallejo police believed the story to be so fantastical that they called the reported abduction a complete fabrication for which the couple should apologize. Huskins and Quinn subsequently filed a defamation of character lawsuit against the police department. Police later apologized to the couple who, in 2018, reached a $2.5 million settlement with the City of Vallejo and its police department.
Muller was arrested in South Lake Tahoe on June 8, 2015, after evidence, including a video of Muller and Huskins, was found at his mother’s home.
In the state case, filed by the Solano County District Attorney’s Office on Jan. 26, 2018, Muller faces six felony charges. They include kidnapping, two counts of forcible rape by force, robbery, burglary and false imprisonment.
Muller has pleaded not guilty to the charges and remains in Solano County Jail in Fairfield, with bail set at $2.25 million.
He filed a 35-page speedy trial request on Feb. 13, 2019, citing, among other things, his health condition and saying he suffered assault while in custody. A Gulf War veteran, Muller served n the military from Oct. 1, 1995, to July 24, 1999.
Quinn and Huskins decided to pursue the state case so he could be held accountable for his crimes in addition to the federal conviction, Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams told The Reporter last year.