Trial opens for city man accused of negligence in  baby’s death by drowning

MANCHESTER, NH – Zachary 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.

Conway was asleep on a motel bed just steps away when Stella drowned, a prosecutor said.

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 steps away from the bathroom 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,” said Defense Attorney Mark Sisti.

“He loved her more than anything,” Sisti said. He told the jurors what they would hear over the next few days is a “horrible nightmare, not a crime.”

Conway, 29, formerly of 243 Auburn St., is being tried on one count of negligent homicide accusing him of negligently supervising her, causing her death by drowning.  If convicted, he could be sentenced to 10 to 30 years in prison.

In the morning, the jury of 8 men and six women (two will be designated alternates at the conclusion of the trial) were taken by bus to the Econo Lodge, 75 West Hancock St.,  to view the motel room where the drowning occurred.

After, attorneys gave their opening statements.

Assistant Hillsborough County Attorney Zachary Charland, in his opening remarks, said Conway, his girlfriend of six months and her two daughters, ages 1 and 2, were staying at the Econo Lodge on Oct. 7, 2019. That morning, Conway had consumed a marijuana brownie, the prosecutor said.

Conway drove his girlfriend to work but fell asleep at a green light.  He then returned to the motel 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 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 said 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.

He said Conway talked with investigators, without an attorney, in an attempt to explain the inexplicable.

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 motel 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 is not negligence in a criminal case,” Sisti told the jurors.

What happened, Sisti said, was an accident and when the case is over, he said he was going to ask jurors to return the true verdict and “that is not guilty.”