AKRON, Ohio - Akron native, Donald Eugene Gates, is a free man after serving 28 years in prison for a murder in Washington D.C. that DNA proved he did not commit.

A judge ordered Gates' release from a federal prison in Arizona earlier this week. Gates, a 1969 graduate of Buchtel High School, told reporters he was headed home to Ohio.

"I'm happy I'm a free man and I'm going home, and I'll talk to you later," Gates said.

In 1981, 21-year-old Catherine Schilling was raped and murdered in Washington's Rock Creek Park.

Donald Gates was arrested when a police informant claimed the then 31-year-old confessed to the murder.

Then at Gates' trial, an FBI crime technician, whose work has since been discredited, claimed that Donald Gates' DNA was found on the body of the victim.

Gates' public defender says his release has been in the works all along.

"Mr. Gates has been fighting to prove that he's innocent of this crime since the moment he was arrested," Sandra Levick says.

Finally, 28 years after Donald Gates was sent to prison, new DNA testing showed the murder of Catherine Schilling was committed by another man.

"There are two victims in this case, there's Catherine Schilling, 21-years-old, brutally raped and murdered -- and unfortunately, there's also Mr. Gates, he's also a victim through the result, whoever this unknown man is," Assistant U.S. Attorney Joan Draper said.

Sources tell Fox 8 News that Gates is heading to Summit County to reunite with his sister.

According to federal guidelines, Gates could receive up to four-million dollars for the time he served in prison.