As Vallejo kidnapper Matthew Muller awaits sentencing, letters from victims’ parents describe ordeal to judge

Former Orangevale resident Matthew Muller faces sentencing Thursday in federal court in Sacramento for the March 2015 kidnap of Denise Huskins

Prosecutors are asking U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley to sentence him to 40 years, arguing that Muller, 39, is so dangerous he needs to be kept in prison until he is too old and weak to pose a threat to the public. Defense attorney Tom Johnson argues that Muller should get a 30-year sentence, saying his actions were caused in part by his mental illness.

The judge is not bound by either recommendation and could sentence Muller, a former Marine and Harvard Law School graduate, to as much as life in prison.

Muller pleaded guilty in September to the kidnapping, during which he broke into the Vallejo home where Huskins, 31, was sleeping in with her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, 32. Muller tied up and blindfolded both, then drugged them and took Huskins away in the trunk of a car to South Lake Tahoe, where authorities say he raped her twice before releasing her.

Huskins and Quinn and now suing Vallejo police over officials’ initial stance that the kidnap report was a hoax orchestrated by the couple. Huskins’ and Quinn’s parents have recounted how the ordeal has affected their families in letters sent to Nunley in advance of the sentencing and included in the federal court file.

This story was originally published March 15, 2017 at 11:13 AM with the headline "As Vallejo kidnapper Matthew Muller awaits sentencing, letters from victims’ parents describe ordeal to judge."