CLINTON, Tenn. (WATE) — The trial for Sean Finnegan, who is suspected of killing a woman, finished on August 21 after Finnegan was found guilty on several counts and sentenced to death. The case saw several witnesses take the stand to shed light on those involved in the gruesome murder of Jennifer Paxton in late 2019.
The 36-year-old’s body was not found until August of 2020 when Finnegan’s girlfriend at the time, Rebecca Dishman, left the home to be taken to a shelter outside of town. Paxton’s body was said to be in a freezer in the closet of Finnegan’s bedroom. Her body was later discovered underneath Finnegan’s bed after he was asked about the body in the freezer.
Dishman entered a plea deal in September 2023 for a shorter time as long as she cooperated with the prosecution team and testified against Finnegan.
Trial Concludes
Following two days of deliberation, the jury reached a verdict on Monday, August 19, and Finnegan was found guilty of the following counts:
- Criminally negligent homicide
- First-degree felony murder during the perpetration of/attempt to perpetrate aggravated rape
- First-degree felony murder during the perpetration of/attempt to perpetrate aggravated kidnapping
- Attempted aggravated rape
- Aggravated rape
- Aggravated kidnapping
- Especially aggravated kidnapping
- Conspiracy to commit aggravated rape
- Conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping
- Abuse of a corpse
- Tampering with evidence
On Wednesday, the jury returned its verdict sentencing Sean Finnegan to death. As the judge read the verdict, he explained that the jury noted four aggravating factors that led them to that decision.
Day 5
Court adjourned at 6 p.m. on Saturday following the jury beginning deliberations. A verdict has not yet been reached and deliberations are set to begin again on Monday.
After a week-long trial took place, court began on saturday with the jury instructions on considering 13 counts against Finnegan being read. Among the charges are felony murder, which could result in the death penalty, aggravated rape, kidnapping, and abuse of a corpse.
After jurors left for deliberation, the judge brought three relatives of Paxton up to read victim impact statements
“We looked for her not just for a day or two, we looked for her for months, day after day, her grandmother who she called ‘mom’ would call me almost every day to ask if I had seen Jennifer. It was so hard on us, we knew Jennifer would not go for days and not contact me or neither one of us. Then on August 6th, 2020, Patty, Jennifer’s mother received a call no mother should have to get,” said Beverly Jeffers, Paxton’s cousin.
These statements will be read to the jury after they come back with their decisions. If convicted, they will be considered in Finnegan’s sentencing.
Day 4
The prosecutors, defense and judge were in court early Friday morning laying out the charges.
When court resumed around 10 a.m., the state called retired Oak Ridge Police Department Captain Michael Uher to the witness stand. He questioned Finnegan the night he was arrested. The full interview was played in court. This was the first time we have seen or heard Finnegan’s statements during the trial. Finnegan was adamant he did not kill Paxton.
In the interview, he told police that he brought Paxton home with him and had sex with her. That’s when he claims Dishman hit Paxton in the head with a baseball bat and chained her to the bed. Finnegan added that he did use string to tie her up and that by the time he got home from work a few days later, Paxton was dead.
The defense believes the evidence will not allow the jury to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Finnegan is guilty of first-degree murder but does show he is guilty of some of the lesser charges.
The state officially rested its case against Finnegan for the kidnapping rape and torture of Paxton shortly after the court returned from its lunch break.
Finnegan then waived his right to testify. The defense called Investigator John Hannon back to the stand. The defense then rested its cast at 2:20 p.m. Closing arguments began just after 2:40 p.m. and finished just after 6 p.m.
Day 3
The majority of Thursday’s proceeding was taken up by the chief medical examiner who detailed Paxton’s injuries. The prosecution then had her come off the stand and over to a mannequin where she placed pins for the cluster of injuries on Paxton’s body.
There were more than 50 different areas of her body that had some form of cut or bruise and some small portions of her body were completely missing.
Pictures from the autopsy were also shown giving a better view of how many injuries there were in a small area. Due to the nature of the images, the jurors were warned and members of the court were told to leave if they did not think they could handle seeing the images.
The first picture shown of the injuries was of Paxton’s face. Based on the picture, there were six cuts on her forehead and severe bruising on both sides of her chin. The medical examiner also pointed out the numerous marks on her neck from where she was being strangled.
Also on the stand Thursday were members of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation including forensic scientists and other special agents. They went through their findings from the evidence collected on August 6, 2020. This included the stains from the freezer, the floor near a downstairs closet and any DNA from a six-foot length of chain, dog collars and shoes.
Jennifer Millsaps, a TBI forensic scientist supervisor, shared that the chain came back with human blood, one side was consistent with Paxton, and the other side was Dishman. The blood stain that was swabbed in the closet on the ground floor was consistent with Finnegan according to Millsaps testimony. A digital forensic examiner from the TBI also walked through how he retrieved data from two of the phones collected from Finnegan’s home.
A worker for Rent-A-Center in Oak Ridge also took to the stand. He worked at the store in 2019 and delivered a freezer to Finnegan’s home. According to the worker, Finnegan had come in multiple times and rented a variety of things from the store. He told the jury the freezer was ordered on December 27 and delivered on the 28.
Court was adjourned just after 4:30 p.m. this evening it will reconvene Friday at 10 a.m.
Day 2
In court on Wednesday, more than a half dozen witnesses took the stand ranging from neighbors to law enforcement officers.
Kesley Koons lived in the apartment to the side of Finnegans. She took the stand on Tuesday as well. While on the stand she was asked if she knew Finnegan or Rebecca Dishman and she explained that the relationship between them was more of a general pleasantries in passing. She also recounted a discussion she had with Dishman.
“She was just talking about how she was scared of Sean, scared she was gonna kill her. She wanted to use my phone to make a fake Facebook profile to try to find a ride to get anyway from him,” said Koons.
Also on the stand was Colt Pekoc, who lived directly behind Finnegan’s apartment. During his testimony, he shared that he called the police after his wife, Mahogany Pekoc, drove Dishman from Oak Ridge to Lafollette so she could go to a women’s shelter. Colt Pekoc said he had interacted with Dishman a few times and this is what he said about her demeanor.
“She was simple kid-like,” said Colt Pekoc. “She dressed kid-like, she would be excited about stuff my kids would be excited about. She was just very simple.”
Colt Pekoc added that Finnegan had threatened to kill him after Mahogany Pekoc took Dishman to Claiborne County. He spoke with the police after that incident happened. When officers arrived at the apartments, Finnegan came to the front of the Pekocs’ apartment to confront him and speak to the police.
Officers from the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office and the Oak Ridge Police Department also detailed how they were involved in this case. For the ACSO, they merely took Dishman from Clinton to Oak Ridge on the day police were called. While, the ORPD officers conducted the investigation, collected evidence and took pictures of the crime scene.
Allen Moore, a lieutenant with ORPD, told jurors his reaction to finding the body of Jennifer Paxton.
“It was cold. I know it was a plastic bag and it was so I jumped up. I was, it caught me by surprise. I, I mean, I wouldn’t expect him to, to find, you know, that body up under therein, in that manner. I was, I was startled to say the least,” said Moore.
“And when you look down at her body, when the bed was finally removed, could you tell? Was she intact?” asked the attorney.
“She was intact but there was… her nose was, was missing,” said Moore.
He continued saying he relayed the information to his supervisors about what he just found. After that, ORPD secured the apartment and marked it as a crime scene. The following witness also worked with the police department and he served as the crime scene photographer for this case. He took jurors and the court frame by frame of the pictures he took and evidence that was collected.
Day 1
Day one of the death penalty trial of Sean Finnegan came to an end as the court was adjourned shortly after 5:00 p.m.
Finnegan said he was not guilty at the beginning of Tuesday’s proceedings, while Rebecca Dishman entered a plea deal for a shorter time as long as she cooperated with the prosecution team and testified against Finnegan.
Dishman took to the witness stand just after 1:00 p.m. Tuesday and was questioned for close to four hours. The prosecution asked her about her life before meeting Finnegan and how they ended up meeting. According to her testimony, she moved in with Finnegan two weeks after meeting him and the start of the relationship was good.
The prosecution described the relationship between Finnegan and Dishman as a ‘master/servant’ relationship. Finnegan was in charge and Dishman did whatever he said.
During Dishman’s testimony, she detailed what Finnegan had done to Paxton after bringing her home. Dishman recalled Finnegan asking her if she wanted to kidnap Paxton while she was in the shower. Dishman was told to go upstairs at one point that day as Finnegan and Paxton began arguing. Dishman says she came back downstairs and saw Finnegan with a baseball bat and Paxton defending herself with a fireplace screen. After striking Paxton with the bat, Finnegan told Dishman to clean up the blood on the floor.
Finnegan had chained Paxton to his bed and left her there and told Dishman to watch her while he went to work in North Knoxville. Dishman did cut some of the zip ties that were on Paxton while Finnegan was away.
Dishman told the court that Paxton at one point had asked to leave, to which she responded she couldn’t let her go. During the testimony, Dishman said Paxton also asked Finnegan if she could leave. Finnegan allegedly told Paxton “he was going to kill her, she wasn’t going anywhere and she was going to die.”
The trial is expected to last about two weeks.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated as the trial continues.
