[4][2][8][5] While stationed in Okinawa, Japan, Muller started a nonprofit to teach locals about the internet[2] and worked at an off-base bilingual newspaper.

[2] He graduated with summa cum laude honors as a double major in economics and science, technology, and society[8] within the Public Policy Analysis program.

[5] His undergraduate senior thesis in the program was titled Once Again Waiting: Implementation of the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act.

[13] While at Pomona, he volunteered helping homeless people obtain government services, organized Orientation Adventure trips, and contributed to political campaign finance research.

While in law school, he volunteered at Harvard’s Legal Aid Bureau, where he began to work with immigrants and low-income rental tenants who had been victims of domestic violence.

[9] Muller remained at Harvard as a fellow and research assistant in the law school's Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program,[15] working under Deborah Anker.

[2] In June 2012, Muller took on a pro bono client named Blanca Medina,[2] a mother with post-traumatic stress disorder who fled El Salvador to escape sexual abuse.

[21] Muller filed paperwork to reopen her asylum case, citing the multiple rapes she faced in her home country, including one by an influential gang member during her border crossing,[22] and mental health reasons for missing court.

Muller started a Change.org petition stating that,[2] "Under ICE rules, it is free to ignore even conclusive proof that a person would suffer slow death by torture if deported.

[10] He developed paranoid delusions that the government had wiretapped his phone and hacked his computer due to suspected ties of some of his immigration clients to terrorists.

A few weeks later, he became a person of interest in a number of nearby incidents, including an attempted sexual assault for which he was later exonerated by DNA profiling.

[2] In October 2009, Muller was questioned at work about the College Terrace incident, which instigated new paranoia that the Palo Alto Police Department was conspiring with the Chinese government and had wire-tapped his law office and his vehicle.

[2] That November, Muller traded vehicles with his mother and fled to Hurricane, Utah, near Zion National Park to avoid the "psychological warfare" he believed was being waged against him by the Chinese government.

[2] Muller suspected one of his neighbors, a physical therapist named Aaron Quinn, and his ex-girlfriend and co-worker at Kaiser Hospital in Vallejo, California,[27] Andrea Roberts, were a part of the cabal.

A student said she had seen the same man walking a husky puppy and a golden retriever, a pair of dogs belonging to Muller's neighbor which he occasionally dog-sat.

In a manifesto sent to Henry Lee at the San Francisco Chronicle, Muller said that he had scared the neighborhood Peeping Tom off a roof and anonymously reported it to the police.

He wore a wetsuit and created tools resembling weapons from items like flashlights, laser pointers, dog collars, swim goggles, spray paint, and various toy guns, such as a Nerf Super Soaker.

Muller created a Robin Hood plot to kidnap "evil wealthy people" for ransom to give to the poor, which he believed in his psychosis to be "morally justified.

During the encounter, Muller whispered and appeared to be speaking aloud to one or more accomplices, and used voicemail recordings to demand two ransom payments of $8,500[a] each that was never paid.

[10] Muller developed a delusion that he was part of an elite three-person gang that began as an auto-theft ring likened to an "Ocean's Eleven gentleman criminals who only took stuff that was insured from people who could afford it.

Muller stole Quinn's car, his laptop, and led him to believe that he was being monitored by video camera, which delayed him from calling the authorities.

[36][10][2][9] Muller put Huskins in the trunk of Quinn's car, moved her to the stolen Mustang, and held her captive at the cabin in South Lake Tahoe.

[38] While holding Huskins hostage, Muller sent several anonymous emails to the San Francisco Chronicle demanding the ransom and claiming it was a training mission for higher net worth targets.

He was arrested without incident at the South Lake Tahoe cabin on June 9, 2015[41] by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office in connection with the Dublin home invasion.

On July 1, 2015, they seized drones, a wireless camera system, sheets, and a stained mattress pad from a storage unit in Muller's name.

The motion alleged that authorities violated Muller's constitutional rights by carrying out an illegal search when they bypassed the lock screen by dialing 911 to retrieve the phone number from emergency dispatchers.

[2][32] In January 2018, the state filed charges against Muller in Solano County, California, for two counts of rape, false imprisonment, kidnapping, burglary, and robbery of a residential dwelling.

[61][2] He filed 35-page speedy trial request citing his mental condition and assaults while in custody[62] and discovery was scheduled for late April.

"[2] In November 2020, Muller was diagnosed with schizophrenia after he pronounced his belief that his family had been replaced with imposters, that he was surrounded by "a bunch of actors... agents... even sort of demon-possessed people," and had a device implanted in his body against his will.

[65][6] In January 2025, Muller entered a guilty plea for two home invasions, one in Palo Alto and the other in Mountain View, California, both in the fall of 2009,[66] for which he was originally a suspect.