Still no trial date for Connor, defense will again ask for bail

LACONIA — A hearing ended without a trial date set for a woman accused of causing the death of her 5-year-old grandson in 2019, but her defense attorney has engaged an expert witness, the court learned Monday morning. 

Attorney Mark Sisti of Sisti Law Offices, who is defending Sherry Connor in the case, told Superior Court Justice Mark Attorri that on Friday, he heard back from a forensic pathologist from Kentucky. 

Court clerks will work to schedule another conference post-haste, with the hopes of nailing down a trial date. Connor is in jail awaiting trial on 13 charges, including manslaughter and negligent homicide, for allegedly causing the death of her grandson, Dennis “Boo” Vaughan Jr. on Christmas Eve 2019. 

“I want the case to be tried as soon as we possibly can,” Attorri said Monday morning. Belknap County Attorney Keith Cormier said the state also wants a date nailed down. 

The expert engaged by Connor’s defense is apparently a board-certified forensic pathologist who, at one point, served as the State of Kentucky’s medical examiner. Sisti read aloud correspondence regarding some of that expert's thoughts regarding an initial review of the case, which included the notion they’d be unable to determine the perpetrator, medically, and the child may have had a hematoma that “may have erupted on its own.” 

Sisti also told the court he would likely request a date for a bail hearing.

The trial in State of New Hampshire v Sherry Connor has been delayed more than once. The most recent occasion was at the beginning of 2026, when jury selection was scheduled for Feb. 9, before being further delayed. Jury selection was previously scheduled in August 2025 — at a status conference in February, court personnel discussed potential trial dates in June, though nothing has been set. 

Vaughan was found unresponsive in Connor’s then-home on Blueberry Lane, on Dec. 24, 2019. She also faces charges of witness tampering.

The boy's death came as a shock to residents of the city, and was then followed with what appeared to be a lack of prosecution. The Attorney General’s Office declared Vaughan's death to be a homicide, informed by the results of an autopsy which indicated the child suffered trauma to the head and neck. Connor wasn’t charged until August 2024, after the state remanded the case to Belknap County in June. 

In August 2024, Col. Mark Hall of State Police, Laconia Police Chief Matt Canfield and Cormier said Connor had been indicted on charges related to the death of a juvenile in the city.

Prosecutors asked Attorri to hold her in jail pending trial. Defense attorneys appealed his decision to hold Connor ahead of trial to the New Hampshire Supreme Court. The high court affirmed Attorri’s order.

The Supreme Court order states: “Here, the defendant was indicted by a grand jury on numerous charges alleging severe abuse of four children in her care — including one count of reckless manslaughter, one count of negligent homicide, several counts of first- or second- degree assault, and several counts of witness tampering.” The order noted the evidence against Connor included accounts of many acts of extreme abuse directed at four young children, carried out over several years.

“Given the severity and the ‘unusual cruelty’ of the defendant’s alleged abuse, and given the increased risk of further witness tampering by the defendant pending her trial, we conclude, based on our review of the record, that the trial court’s finding of dangerousness is supported by the evidence.”