A Weare man facing felony charges after police say he left the scene of a fatal crash involving his former girlfriend last month was in court Thursday to face lesser charges of domestic violence.

Following an incident in the parking lot of a gas station in January, Thomas Hanley, 30, was arrested and charged with four counts of domestic assault for pushing, berating and forcing Gina Maiorano, then 27 and now deceased, into a car they were driving, according to court records. As a result, a domestic violence protection order was filed against Hanley, who violated it in the following days when he sent Maiorano a picture of himself holding a gun and called her several times.

On Thursday, Hanley was prepared to enter a guilty plea at the Goffstown District Court for violating both a domestic violence order and a criminal bail protective order. However, Weare Police Sergeant Brandon Montplaisir requested to merge the charges into one Class A misdemeanor of criminal conduct, which was accepted by the defense. Hanley pleaded guilty to the charge. 

Judge Susan Gorman accepted his plea and sentenced him to 30 days in jail to be suspended for a year on the condition of good behavior and the completion of a 96-day treatment program. 

“If you do not comply during that period, the court could impose that jail sentence,” Judge Gorman said. 

Hanley is scheduled to appear in Merrimack County Superior Court in August on felony charges of conduct after an accident, and a breach of bail and stalking, misdemeanors, as a result of Maiorano’s death in June. At the time of her death, Hanley was driving when he said she jumped out of the vehicle. Hanley never stopped because he was high on meth, he told his father. 

An autopsy performed by Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jennie Duval concluded that she died from blunt force trauma to the head and sustained a fractured wrist, a fractured right shoulder, superficial lacerations and road rash on the majority of her body.

During the early morning hours of June 5, a passerby notified police that a female was dead in the breakdown lane of I-89 north near exit 4 in the town of Hopkinton, according to court documents.

The couple has a lengthy history of domestic violence and DCYF involvement in both New Hampshire and Connecticut, where Maiorano lived, according to court records.

Following Hanley’s arrest in Weare in January, Maiorano, who was 27 and a mother of two, relocated to Connecticut and lived with her brother before going to rehab. She recently left rehab before her death after she relapsed with Hanley the night and morning before she died, Hanley’s father told police.

Hanley was arrested the following day and released on $5,000 cash bail after pleading not guilty to the charges. He remains free on bail pending a hearing on August 11 at 8:30 a.m. at Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord.

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