Convicted child rapist sentenced to 378 years in prison

Ajay Kumar Dev, 42, formerly of Davis, was sentenced by Superior Court
Judge Timothy Fall for his multiple count conviction of the rape and
sexual assault of his adopted daughter, beginning when she was 15,
between January 1999 and December 2004.

In June, a jury had convicted Dev of 46 forcible sexual assaults on the
child which under California law mandated full and consecutive
sentences. Fall sentenced Deve to the upper term of eight years for
each of those separates assaults finding that the factors in
aggravation, including the violation of a position of trust, outweighed
the sole factor in mitigation, the defendant's lack of prior record.

Dev was also sentenced to the legally mandated full middle term of two
years each for two separate acts of witness dissuasion against the
victim one of which occurred when Deve followed the girl back to their
home country of Nepal after she reported the crimes to the Davis Police
Department, according to Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig.

"A consecutive sentence of six years and four months was handed down
for six other non-forcible counts of chid molestation for which the
jury had convicted Mr. Dev," Reisig stated. "Judge Fall also sentenced
the defendant to the upper term of three years on twenty-two other
counts but the execution of those sentences was stayed pursuant to the
Penal Code."

Reisig reported the sentencing hearing was attended by a
large contingent of the defendant's family and friends as well as
members of the local Nepali community.

"Some of the jury members also attended the sentencing," Reisig
reported. "Three of the defendant's supporters along with the defendant
and his attorney Michael Rothschild made statements to the court on the
defendant's behalf. The victim did not attend the sentencing but her
victim impact statement was included in the report sent to the judge by
the probation department.