CLINTON, Tenn. — They offered her a place to stay. And then, authorities allege, they beat, raped, tied up and ultimately killed her. For months they kept her body hidden in a freezer.
Starting Monday, 56-year-old Sean Shannon Finnegan of Oak Ridge will be on trial for his life in the torture-slaying of Jennifer Gail Paxton, 35, formerly of Knoxville.
Potential jurors report for duty Monday morning. It's expected selection will take most of the day.
Opening statements are expected Tuesday in Anderson County Circuit Court in Clinton. Senior Judge Don Ash will preside over the trial.
Jurors will be sequestered, meaning they'll all stay together during the trial and away from it, until the trial ends. If necessary, they'll work Saturday.
Co-defendant Rebecca Dishman pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in September 2023 and is expected to testify against Finnegan.
Authorities have said the case is heinous and gruesome, resulting in Anderson County District Attorney General Dave Clark's decision to seek the death penalty against Finnegan. Today, it's rare for a prosecutor to put on a capital case.
Less than 50 inmates are on death row in the state, none sent there by Anderson County, state records show. The last man convicted and sentenced to death in the state was Steven Wiggins in 2021 in Dickson County.
Finnegan and Dishman, who were boyfriend and girlfriend, shared a home on Fairview Road. In December 2019, they lured Paxton into the home with the promise that she'd have a place to live, authorities allege.
In truth, they had other plans.
"Once at the home, the victim was held against her will, physically attacked with a baseball bat, tortured, raped, deprived of food and medical care, strangled with a ligature and then left for dead," a warrant filed by Oak Ridge Police Department states.
Before death, they'd chained Paxton to a bed, shackled her with a dog collar and bound her arms with zip ties, records state.
"The kidnapping was used to facilitate ongoing sex acts against the victim," warrants state.
While she was chained, Finnegan engaged in a sexual "threesome" with the victim, who had no way to resist.
It's believed Paxton succumbed in December 2019 to the abuse and harm.
Finnegan and Dishman used a sharp instrument to cut off part of at least one of her breasts as well as her nose, warrants state.
They "used force to break ligaments and bones in order to get the victim's corpse to fit inside of a stand-up freezer," records state.
And that's where they kept her body for months.
Dishman, according to an autopsy report, told a neighbor some time in 2020 that she and Finnegan had a body in their freezer. The neighbor told the Campbell County Sheriff's Office who passed the information along to Anderson County Sheriff's Office and Oak Ridge police.
In early August 2020, Oak Ridge police went to the Fairview residence.
Knowing the police might find what he'd done, Finnegan moved Paxton's frozen body out of the freezer and hid her under his bed.
"He also cleaned the interior of the freezer to remove any physical evidence," warrants state.
The ruse didn't work; police found the body under the bed in trash bags.
Cops arrested Finnegan and Dishman early Aug. 6, 2020, and they've been held in jail ever since.
Finnegan and Dishman have confessed, authorities allege.
Under Tennessee rules, Finnegan will face trial first to determine if he's guilty of first-degree murder.
If the jury convicts, the same panel will then shift to a mini-trial, punishment phase, during which the state will put on evidence about the horrific nature of the crime and why it merits a death sentence. The defense will also get a chance to put on evidence to try to sway jurors to spare Finnegan's life.
An investigation subsequent to Paxton's death led authorities to charge the couple with rape of two children.
Along with the murder of Paxton, Dishman last year also pleaded to two rape of a child charges. She's to serve a sentence of life in prison plus another 50 years for the rapes.
