YOLO COUNTY -- A former Davis man was freed from state prison more than one month ago, after a Yolo County judge ruled his rape conviction should be overturned and his nearly 400-year sentence vacated based on new evidence and testimony presented in habeas hearings. 

Ajay Dev, 58, has spent the past 16 years in prison for a crime he says he did not commit. Dev was convicted of repeatedly raping his adopted daughter back in 2009. The alleged victim maintains her allegations are truthful, but Judge Janene Beronio found the evidence was insubstantial and that there were significant flaws in Dev's original trial.

"Based on my review of this entire case, I believe that, in fact, Mr. Dev could be innocent of these charges," Bernoio ruled on May 16.

He was released from Mule Creek State Prison on his own recognizance and walked free from custody one week later, on May 23.

Dev sat down for his first on-camera interview exclusively with CBS Sacramento.

"Sixteen years ago today was one of the worst days of my life when I was falsely convicted and wrongfully imprisoned," Dev said. "This happened to me, but it does not define me."

Dev considers this a second chance at life, now navigating a new world outside prison walls.

"I just want to have a normal life. I did not commit this crime and I am innocent, 100 percent," Dev said.

He describes listening to the judge's ruling from inside prison walls, when he learned his nearly four life sentences were vacated.

"I cried and I could hear on the audio people gasping in tears," said Dev. "I just held one of my friends. Held him, saying, 'Looks like I'm going home.' He started crying and prayed with me. As we were praying, other inmates circled and prayed with me. I think they knew that I was innocent."

Dev walked out of custody and into the arms of his family.

His two sons are now 15 and 17. The oldest was just a baby and the youngest not yet born at the time of his conviction.

"One of the biggest losses for me out of this whole incarceration was the loss of fatherhood," Dev said. "Nothing comes close to that. It's even worse than being falsely accused of something. Traumatic as it is, no father wants to be denied their children. And that was hard."

Dev got to spend his very first Father's Day celebrating with his two sons outside of prison walls this year. Dev says he did not even get to hold his youngest son in his arms until he was 8 years old due to contact restrictions at the prison.

"While I was doing time, I feel like they were also doing time with me. It's not easy, and for their mother to raise two children on her own, it's been hard on her," said Dev of his wife of 20 years and one of his biggest supporters, Peggy Dev. In 2017, the couple amicably divorced.

In his darkest days, he says he leaned on family and community support while working to keep his mind occupied.

The former engineer for the California Department of Water Resources turned to teaching math to fellow inmates. He also spent his time studying his own legal case.

"And I kid you not, I must have spent more time on my legal works than my combined bachelor and master's degrees in engineering prior to my conviction. Because I was fighting for my life," Dev said.

He also had to learn to forgive as the emotional toll was heavy.

"It was unbearable. Moments where I would just stare at the wall, looking at my two kids' picture, praying. There were days I'd pull the covers over my head so my cellmate would not see my in those weak times where I'd cry," said Dev. "I even thought about committing suicide, to be honest. This hatred just consumed my soul. I knew this wasn't helping me. I started to really pray and start to forgive those people who have betrayed me. I think that gave me some strength."

In the end, he says he owes his freedom to his faithful attorney and now lifelong friend Jennifer Mouzis.

"To put it in one sentence, she saved my life. She did save my life," Dev said.

Mouzis has been working on the case for five years of habeas hearings and says there was no actual evidence that a crime ever occurred.

"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. 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," Mouzis told CBS13 in May.

Dev says the dark cloud hanging over him for nearly two decades has finally cleared. Still, he is not yet out of the woods. The Yolo County district attorney's office could choose to dismiss or retry Dev's case. In a June 13 hearing, the decision was continued in court to July 10.

"In the interest of justice, I hope the district attorney reviews the case every carefully and reaches a sound decision, and that is to drop the case in its entirety. If not, I am confident that we will prevail in the end," Dev said.

The DA's office told CBS13 in a statement, "The People are prepared to retry the matter when the defense is ready to set the matter for trial."

• Yolo County