The Latest: Man gets 40 years in abduction once called hoax
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Latest on the sentencing of a disbarred lawyer convicted of an elaborate kidnapping (all times local):
4:15 p.m.
A judge has sentenced a former Harvard-trained attorney to 40 years in prison for a kidnapping so elaborate and bizarre that police in California initially dismissed it as a hoax.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley handed down the term Thursday to 39-year-old Matthew Muller for what he called a "heinous, atrocious, horrible crime." Muller had pleaded guilty.
Police realized Denise Huskins was telling the truth about her 2015 kidnapping after Muller was implicated in a different crime.
Huskins and her boyfriend, who also was tied up and drugged when she was abducted, gave tearful statements describing the physical and psychological torture that still haunts them.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Muller told the court that he was "sick with shame" for the pain he caused.
Prosecutors recommended the 40-year sentence in a plea deal. The defense had asked for 30 years.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}12 a.m.
A disbarred Harvard University-trained attorney faces decades in prison for a kidnapping so elaborate and bizarre that police in California initially dismissed it as a hoax.
Federal prosecutors are seeking a 40-year sentence Thursday for Matthew Muller. He pleaded guilty in September to holding a woman for ransom in a case that investigators once erroneously likened to the movie, "Gone Girl."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}They realized that Denise Huskins was telling the truth about her March 2015 abduction only after Muller was implicated in a different crime.
Muller could face life in prison, but prosecutors agreed to recommend 40 years in exchange for his guilty plea.
Defense attorney Thomas Johnson wants a 30-year sentence, saying says his 39-year-old client has been diagnosed as manic and depressive and can be rehabilitated with proper treatment.