GEORGETOWN, Del. (AP/WBOC)- A former University of Delaware athlete already serving a six-year prison sentence for sex offenses pleaded guilty Wednesday to third-degree rape and no contest to several other charges.
Former UD baseball player Clay Conaway, 26, of Georgetown, was accused of sexually assaulting several women between 2013 and 2018. A judge had ordered separate trials involving each accuser. Conaway accepted a plea deal in Sussex County, wrapping up the cases against him. Sentencing is scheduled for June.
As part of the plea deal, prosecutors have agreed to ask for no more than four additional years in prison for Conaway. His attorney, Joe Hurley, said he plans to argue for two. The judge can issue a prison sentence of up to 25 years.
Hurley has said the plea deals were motivated in large part by concerns about pretrial publicity that could affect the ability to find impartial jurors. 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, Hurley noted.
“Today brings to a close the last of six convictions for a serial rapist,” Attorney General Kathy Jennings said in a statement. “We are endlessly grateful to the survivors for their courage coming forward - especially those who withstood outdated and unacceptable victim-shaming. Those survivors are the reason justice has arrived today, and why their attacker will remain in prison for years to come.”