KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — As they weighed the fate of convicted killer Sean Finnegan, there was a moment when one Anderson County juror wondered last month if the group would actually all agree that he should be put to death.
The female juror told WBIR that at the end of the first day of deliberations -- Aug. 20 -- in the sentencing phase of Finnegan's August trial, the jury appeared stuck at 7-5. They went back to their hotel to rest, maybe relax and certainly to think about something other than the murder case.
By then, they'd been hearing information about the case for eight days.
"It was tough," the Anderson County juror told WBIR this week as she reflected on the trial.
"I wasn’t sure we were going to work through it. After that first night of deliberations on Tuesday, I was already resigned in my head, He's going to get life without parole. Not because I wanted that. I just didn’t think everyone was gonna flip like they did.
"All of the people that were on the fence the day before, they started deliberations (the next morning) with how they were feeling, prayed on it, slept on it, and they were ready to proceed."
By the second day of deliberations, Aug. 21st, the 12 Anderson County residents all agreed: It would be death indeed for the 56-year-old Oak Ridge man in the first-degree murder of Jennifer Paxton.
After the trial in Clinton, WBIR reached out through an intermediary to see if any of the jurors would be willing to talk about the trial and deliberation process.
The woman and a male juror responded. WBIR spoke with the woman this week, and received a statement from the male juror that he wished for Paxton's family to receive.
WBIR isn't naming either juror and isn't showing the female juror's face. Jurors aren't identified or allowed to be filmed during trial; 10News agreed to grant the two jurors' request to remain unnamed.
They convicted Finnegan of some 10 counts in the December 2019 torture, rape and slaying of Paxton in the Oak Ridge apartment Finnegan shared with then girlfriend Rebecca Dishman, who was some 30 years younger than Finnegan.
The couple kept Paxton chained to a bed in their bedroom for several days, during which she was beaten with a baseball bat and made to use a bucket to defecate. Ultimately, according to Dishman, Finnegan strangled her in late December 2019.
During the trial, the juror said she glanced over at the defendant a few times during the trial.
"I just thought that his eyes were so dead," she said. "There was nothing, no remorse, no feeling, just kind of a blank stare the entire time. He would tap his foot under the table, showing a little nervousness, but other than that there was nothing."
THE EVIDENCE
Only Finnegan stood trial last month. Dishman pleaded guilty in 2023 in an agreement with prosecutors that sent her to prison for the rest of her life in exchange for testimony at her old boyfriend's trial.
She was a key state witness, and what she said figured in some of how the jury viewed the case, according to the female juror who spoke with WBIR. But it wasn't the only key evidence.
Dishman testified she had a submissive relationship with Finnegan. As the master, he told her what to do, including committing bizarre and kinky sex acts, and she followed through, sometimes taking photographs, she testified.
Jurors believed much of what she said but also had doubts about other things she said.
To the female juror, Dishman sometimes appeared to be acting as a "victim" when she really had been a participant.
"It's one of those things that only those two people know exactly what happened," the juror said.
After Paxton's killing, Finnegan rented a freezer in which he stored Paxton's body for some eight months in a closet in his bedroom. Dishman continued to live in the home for months after the killing, only deciding in August 2020 that she needed to get away, according to court testimony.
All that time, she knew what had happened to Finnegan and indeed testified she'd see him masturbate while spending time with Paxton's body.
After she told a neighbor what had happened, Oak Ridge police were alerted, went to the apartment and discovered Paxton's frozen body. By then, Finnegan had pulled it out of the freezer and hidden it under the bed, hoping no one would look there.
While the jury wrestled with how to weigh the culpability of Finnegan and Dishman, they had little doubt about the pain, torment and abuse Paxton suffered.
To the female juror, the testimony of Medical Examiner Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan and her use of a mannequin to show jurors the extent and degree of Paxton's injuries was powerful and effective.
The Medical Examiner's Office used various visual markers to show where on Paxton's body she'd been slashed, beaten and otherwise wounded.
During the trial, prosecutors Kevin Allen and Sarah Keith brought the freezer in and rolled it right up to the jury so they could peer inside it themselves.
The female juror said that didn't bother her as much as the "awful" autopsy photos of Paxton.
"We had a juror cry," she recalled. "My hand went to my mouth. It was terrible. That's what sticks with me the most."
SEQUESTRATION AND DELIBERATION
The juror said she thought sequestration -- being away from family in a hotel for the duration of the trial -- wasn't as bad as she anticipated.
She often spent time alone in her hotel room, especially after a hard day. Others, however, spent time together in a conference room playing games, doing puzzles or watching certain TV channels with permission.
They were prevented from reading or learning anything about the case from anywhere outside the courtroom, which is standard.
The juror praised Anderson County bailiffs assigned to watch out for them. They tried to reduce the stress of the experience as much as possible, she said. Other court personnel including Court Clerk Rex Lynch also made it better, she said.
"I thought we all did a good job of leaving everything at the courthouse, and then when we got back to the hotel we were at the hotel," she said.
The jury first had to decide if Finnegan was guilty as charged. Then, once they convicted him of first-degree murder, they had to go through a second, sentencing phase for the trial at which they had to consider death or life without parole for the defendant.
The counts and the jury instructions were thick with legalese and at times confusing for jurors. That's often the case at trial, especially at trials where the stakes are high and the sentencing gets involved.
"We're not attorneys or lawyers, so it was confusing for all of us," the juror told WBIR.
On the first day of deliberations in the first part of the trial, the panel couldn't reach a decision on the very first count.
Ultimately, they went for a far lesser conviction on that first murder count. But they agreed unanimously that Finnegan was guilty on other murder counts, including a felony murder count. That was enough to trigger the second, sentencing stage of the proceeding.
The jury concluded both Finnegan and Dishman played a part in murdering Paxton, the juror said.
Some jurors were affected by testimony elicited by defense attorneys Kit Rodgers and Forrest Wallace that their client had endured a rough childhood that included abuse.
"It was terrible but at the end of the day, having a bad childhood doesn't give you a free pass to do what he did," she said.
They also doubted the defense's claims that before Dishman had come into his life that Finnegan had led a perfectly normal, quiet life.
"You don't just turn to this life out of nowhere when you're 50, so we kind of read between the lines there and didn't believe that this was his first offense," the juror said.
After the trial ended, she said she and others learned that he'd been arrested in 2015 in Blount County, accused of kidnapping a Knoxville woman and repeatedly raping her when he lived in Louisville. The case ultimately was dismissed and wiped from the court system because of evidence problems, authorities said.
The prior allegations against Finnegan give the juror some comfort after the fact, she said.
REMEMBERING THE VICTIM
The woman said serving on the Finnegan jury was the hardest thing she's ever had to do. She believes the death penalty can be applicable in certain crimes, but it still weighs on you to know you've got a man's life in your hands, she said.
She said she was startled when she ended up getting picked for the panel. She wouldn't want to do it again.
She also said that true crime content and programming has become so pervasive in American culture that many people have become desensitized to crimes and crime victims.
She'd heard about the Paxton homicide back when it happened. It didn't strike home how real it was "until I was in the middle of it."
The jury felt for Paxton's family and for what the victim went through, she said. Paxton was homeless in Knoxville, a drug addict and sometimes performed sex acts for money. Her family testified they looked out for her the best they could, but that she wanted to live an independent life.
"I tried to keep in mind that we were there for Jennifer Paxton," the juror said. "I think that kind of got lost in a lot of the trial because the defense wanted to make it more about Rebecca Dishman and her part in it. I agreed with the prosecution -- Jennifer did not get any mercy and whatever punishment he gets is going to be a lot easier than what she got."
A fellow male juror declined to sit for an interview but did want WBIR to pass along his thoughts about the victim. The female juror said she agreed with what he had to say.
The man wrote: "I would ask though that you extend to Jennifer’s family that many of us on the jury knew that we had to keep her in our hearts and ensure that we hopefully provided justice for her! That regardless of the burdens or demons we carry, that no one should have gone through what she did. We hope that we have brought some solace to the family and know she was with us in our hearts."
Finnegan still faces sentencing for related crimes beyond the murder conviction. Senior Judge Don Ash is set to impose time on those convictions in November.
Considering his age, it's likely Finnegan will die in prison before the state gets to his death sentence.
