Yolo County man believed to be wrongfully convicted of rape has 378-year sentence vacated by judge
WOODLAND -- A Davis man now believed to be wrongfully convicted of serial rape saw his nearly 400-year prison sentence vacated in Yolo County Superior Court earlier this month.
The judge ruled the testimony from the named victim was not credible and pointed to new evidence that could have made a difference if presented at his trial.
Ajay Dev hugging family members after his release from prison
Patty Pursell
Ajay Dev has spent 16 years behind bars at Mule Creek State Prison for a crime he has always maintained he never committed. Ajay was released on Friday, May 23 on his own recognizance, meaning with no bail requirement set, despite requests from the District Attorney's office for a $500,000 bond.
"There was a lot of time lost. A lot of good years lost," said Patty Pursell, Ajay's sister-in-law, who has helped fight for his freedom since his 2009 conviction alongside hundreds of "Ajay's Advocates" she has rallied over the years in support of his innocence.
Ajay's Habeas Corpus hearings, the process when a court examines the legality of a person's detention or conviction, have been ongoing for seven years now.
"The tears just started rolling. It was, 'Oh my gosh, I can't believe it,' " said Pursell of the judge's May 16 ruling. "To be in prison all that time and know that you're innocent, that was the hard part. We kept trying to do everything we could and we couldn't get anybody to listen to us that was official."
Ajay was convicted of the serial molest and rape of an adopted family member who he helped bring stateside from their native country, Nepal. The allegation by the named victim, Sapna Dev, was that her adopted father raped her three times per week over a period of five years.
Ajay has maintained his innocence and now he walks free, finally able to reunite with his wife Peggy and their two sons.
"When he was arrested, Ajay's oldest son was two and my sister was pregnant with the other. He was in jail and didn't get to see his child be born," said Pursell.
In a statement submitted to the court, Ajay said of his two sons: "The absence of fatherhood has been the most difficult while doing time for a crime I never committed. You gave me a purpose to live. I cannot wait to be home with you."
His original sentence was 378 years and four months in state prison for 76 counts of sexual assault against his adopted daughter.
"It is the most outrageous sentence I have ever seen," said Jennifer Mouzis, who represented Ajay Dev in the Habeas Corpus hearings.
Mouzis has been working on the case for five years and says there was no actual evidence that a crime ever occurred.
Ajay Dev, pictured right, moments after release from prison
Patty Pursell
"There was a lot of indication it didn't happen and not a lot of evidence it did happen. When I looked at it, I saw more and more cracks in the armor," said Mouzis. "If you stripped away some of the stereotypes used to gain a conviction, some of the implicit bias incorporated into the trial about Nepali culture and people from Nepal, if you strip that away, there really wasn't evidence it occurred."
In court, Mouzis presented new evidence debunking an alleged pretext phone call "confession" by Ajay.
Mouzis says enhancing the original phone call proved that confession never happened and that the original translation of the Nepali language portion of the conversation, allowed to be translated by the named victim in court, asserting he admitted to the rapes was a fabrication.
Plus, the defense team introduced into evidence for the first time the fact that the named victim had been convicted of perjury and passport fraud in Nepal in order to obtain immigration benefits.
In addition, Mouzis argued Sapna allegedly admitted she was never raped.
"There were additional witnesses in Nepal where the victim admitted she was lying about the charges specifically for the purpose of gaining reentry to the United States and citizenship in the United States," said Mouzis.
Sapna was ultimately granted American citizenship in light of the case and her cooperation with prosecutors.
Judge Beronio of Yolo County Superior Court found the new witnesses alleging Sapna lied to be credible and vacated Ajay's conviction, writing in her ruling that, "Based on my review of this entire case, I believe that in fact Mr. Dev could be innocent of these charges."
The Yolo County District Attorney's Office declined to provide a comment to CBS13 for this story.
In a victim impact statement from Sapna that was read in court, she maintained that her allegations are truthful.
Even though Ajay has been released and his sentence vacated, his court battle is not over yet. He will be back before a judge on June 13, when the District Attorney could decide to retry the case or dismiss it.
The DA has the right to retry the case based on the new evidence discovered and presented in court during the Habeas Corpus hearings. In addition, the attorney general could step in and decide to overturn Judge Beronio's ruling.
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