DOVER – Prosecutors in Delaware have reached plea agreements resolving several rape cases against a former University of Delaware athlete who is already serving a six-year prison sentence for sex offenses.
A judge was scheduled to hold a plea hearing Wednesday in Sussex County for former UD baseball player Clay Conaway.
Conaway, 26, is facing five counts of second-degree rape involving four separate women. Second-degree rape involves intentional penetration with any object or body part without consent, or with a person under age 16, that results in serious physical injury.
He is expected to plead no contest to the lesser charge of fourth-degree rape in three of the cases, and guilty to third-degree rape in the other.
Fourth-degree rape carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, but no mandatory prison time. The charge is defined as intentional penetration with any object or body part without consent, or with a person under age 16.
Third-degree rape involves sexual penetration without the victim’s consent, or with a person under age 16 that involves physical injury or serious mental or emotional injury. The charge carries a sentencing range of two to 25 years, with a presumptive sentence of two to five years and a mandatory minimum of two years behind bars.
As part of the plea deal, prosecutors have agreed to ask for no more than four additional years in prison for Conaway.
Conaway was sentenced in November 2019 to five years in prison after being found guilty of fourth-degree rape of another woman. He had been charged with first-degree rape in that case and could have been sentenced to life in prison if convicted of that charge.
The woman testified at trial that Conaway raped her after she drove to his family’s house in southern Delaware’s Sussex County. The encounter occurred three weeks after they connected on the online social and dating application Bumble. Conaway sent her a nude picture of himself before they met. The victim was one of several women whom Conaway was accused of sexually assaulting between September 2013 and July 2018. A judge ordered separate trials involving each accuser.
Following a second trial, a jury declined to convict Conaway of attempted second-degree rape and strangulation but found him guilty of third-degree unlawful sexual contact. That misdemeanor offense carries no mandatory prison time and a presumptive sentence of probation, but the judge sentenced Conaway in January 2021 to one year in prison.
Conaway was accused in that case of assaulting a fellow UD student he met through the dating app Tinder in 2017 at his Newark apartment.
All of the other cases involved alleged assaults in Sussex County.
Prosecutors previously dismissed a count of second-degree rape involving a seventh alleged victim after learning that she had lied to police about having contact with Conaway after the encounter.
Conaway’s attorney, Joe Hurley, said Wednesday’s plea deals were motivated in large part by concerns about pretrial publicity that could affect the ability to find impartial jurors.
“Who in the world hasn’t heard his name in Sussex County?” Hurley asked.
Hurley also noted that if the cases had gone to trial and Conaway was convicted of second-degree rape, he would face a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years on each count.
