Former UD baseball player sentenced to additional prison time for sexual assaults
DOVER, Del. – A former University of Delaware athlete serving a six-year sentence for sex offenses has been sentenced to an additional 2.5 years for other sex offenses on young women.
27-year-old Clay Conaway was sentenced in a Delaware courtroom after pleading guilty to third degree rape and no contest to three counts of fourth degree rape. He took plea agreements in five counts of second degree rape involving four separate women.
Conaway was sentenced to two years for third degree rape, 90 days each on two counts of fourth degree rape, and probation for the other fourth degree rape charge. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to ask for no more than four additional years in prison. If Conaway had been tried and convicted of second degree rape, he faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison on each count. Third degree rape carries a mandatory minimum of two years and a maximum sentence of 25 years. Fourth degree rape is punishable by a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, but it does not involve mandatory prison time.
Conaway was a former university baseball player who was accused of sexually assaulting several women between 2013 and 2018. He 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 faced life in prison if convicted of that charge.
After a second trial, a jury declined to convict Conaway of attempted second degree rape and strangulation of another woman, but instead found him guilty of third degree unlawful sexual contact. This misdemeanor offense carries a presumptive sentence of probation, but the judge sentenced Conaway to one year in prison in January 2021. Conaway was accused in that case of assaulting another university student he met through the dating app Tinder in 2017.
All of the other cases were in Sussex County. Prosecutors had previously dismissed a count of second degree rape after learning that the accuser had lied to police about having contact with Conaway after the encounter.
