Man found guilty in drowning of 1-year-old in bathtub at Manchester Econolodge

MANCHESTER, NH – Zachary Conway was found guilty of negligent homicide in the death of Baby Stella, the one-year-old daughter of his girlfriend, who drowned in a bathtub at the EconoLodge in 2019.

A Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District jury deliberated about seven hours over two days before returning the guilty verdict early Friday afternoon.

Prosecutor Patrick Ives said the maximum sentence for negligent homicide against a child under the age of 13 in the care and control of a person is 10 to 30 years in prison. Conway is currently incarcerated in Maine serving a sentence of between five and 10 years on an unrelated crime.  Whatever sentence he receives in the New Hampshire case will begin once  he is released from the Maine sentence, said Ives.

Stella Hickey drowned late in the afternoon of Oct 7, 2019 in a room at the 75 West Hancock St. hotel.

Ives said he appreciated the jurors’ thoughtful deliberations in the case. “It’s a challenging legal concept to understand and I appreciate their service,” he said.

He also had high praise for investigators who he said collected the most evidence he has ever seen in any case he has prosecuted.

Defense attorneys declined comment.

Prosecutors maintained Conway caused the death of his girlfriend’s one-year-old daughter when he left her, with her older sister, unsupervised in a bathtub filling with water in a motel room in October 2019, prosecutors said.

Conway fell asleep in a motel bed when Stella Hickey drowned, a prosecutor said. The state maintained he and others had partied the night before – two of his friends were in the room when Conway awakened to the cries of Aubree Hickey, Stella’s older sister, and found the 1-year-old face down in the bathtub.

The defense, however, maintains that Conway wasn’t feeling well that day and that he was being treated for pneumonia.   He sat down on the bed and fainted.  Prosecutors, defense attorney Mark Sisti said, are aware of that fact.

“This is a very tragic situation.  The death of Stella was totally unintentional,” Sisti said in his opening statement.“He loved her more than anything.”

Conway, 29, formerly of 243 Auburn St., was convicted of one count of negligent homicide accusing him of negligently supervising Stella, causing her death by drowning.

Assistant Hillsborough County Attorney Zachary Charland, in his opening remarks, said Conway, Tehya Charbonneau, his girlfriend of six months and her two young daughters,   were staying at the motel along with other friends.   The night before or early that morning, Conway ate a “strong” marijuana brownie, prosecutors said.

In the morning, Conway drove his girlfriend to work but fell asleep at a green light.  He then returned to the hotel to watch the children.  Conway, Charland said, was still tired from partying the night before and fell asleep.  He woke up to find the children had soiled themselves.  He got up, wiped them down and put them both in the bathtub, and turned on the water.

Conway, he said, “left them there” and went to sit down on a bed.  He fell asleep, “the tub filled with water and Stella drowned.  The two-year-old was still in the water,” Charland said.

Conway, the prosecutor told the jurors, was steps away.  He woke up when Stella’s older sister started crying and he found Stella face down in the bathtub.  Conway attempted CPR on the child and ran out into the hallway asking for help.  A woman in the motel attempted CPR as well.

Manchester firefighters and police arrived.  A firefighter took Stella down to the lobby and she was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.

The prosecutor told jurors an ordinary person with common sense “would know not to leave two babies alone in a tub.  Because of his negligence, Stella drowned.”

Sisti said while the prosecutor alluded to a marijuana brownie, there is no evidence that Conway was intoxicated.  Conway spoke to police who, Sisti said, had the ability to have him undergo drug tests but didn’t because there was no indication Conway was under the influence of an intoxicating substance.

That day, Sisti said, Conway was not in the best of health.  He was being treated for pneumonia and had fainted and passed out at a green light while driving his girlfriend to work that morning.

He returned to the hotel to take care of the children. He put the children in the bathtub and then walked about five steps to the bed and, Sisti said, he fainted.

“When he woke up, he was horrified.  He took the child, wrapped her up in a towel and tried to resuscitate her.  He did everything he could possibly do.  He tried to do CPR.  He carried her out into a hall, “begging people to help him.”

Conway, he said, was hysterical, unconsolable, devastated.

Stella’s death was an unintended act which, Sisti contended, “is not negligence in a criminal case.”