CLINTON, Tenn. — Update (5:35 p.m.): The jury deliberated for more than three hours Saturday in Sean Finnegan's capital murder trial and will return Monday for more of the same.
Judge Don Ash spent several hours Saturday morning reading more than 100 pages of instructions to jurors before they began deliberating a verdict, which took up most of the day. Ash went into great detail explaining how jurors should apply the law to each of the counts Finnegan is charged with.
The jury was released to deliberate at 2:20 p.m. Saturday. By 5:30 that evening, they hadn't reached a verdict, so Ash dismissed them for the weekend. They will reconvene Monday at 8:30 a.m. to continue deliberations.
Earlier Saturday, the judge said it was likely deliberations wouldn't wrap up today, based on the number of charges and the severity of the case.
The jury is sequestered now, so they will stay at a hotel this weekend and are not allowed to discuss the case with the other jurors or anyone else. They will only be allowed to travel for specific reasons such as dinner under court supervision until they reconvene Monday. When jurors discuss the case, all 12 must be present, and they have to be in the deliberation room at the courthouse.
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The jury has begun deliberations in an Oak Ridge man's murder trial. If found guilty of first-degree murder, he faces a potential death sentence.
Sean Finnegan is charged with premeditated first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated rape, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence in the death of Jennifer Paxton of Knoxville.
Senior Judge Don Ash on Saturday morning read about 100 pages of instructions to the jury. The instructions tell them how to apply the law to each of the counts Finnegan is charged with.
While the judge read the instructions to the jury, Finnegan kept his gaze downward. Throughout most of the trial, he's been alert and engaged but stone-faced. When the jury was shown 41 graphic autopsy photos of Paxton earlier this week, he looked at the floor, refusing to look at the courtroom screen on which the photos were displayed.
Paxton's family has been in the courtroom every day of the trial. Her aunt, Beverly Payne, and cousin, Brittany Payne, testified for the state earlier this week.
They said they last heard from Paxton in late 2019. Her mother reported her missing in February 2020 to Knoxville police.
The state is pursuing the death penalty.
If Finnegan is found guilty of murder, he'll face a second, mini-trial before this same jury. They'll hear proof from the prosecution and the defense, and they'll be asked to consider if he should be sentenced to death, to life in prison with no chance at parole or if the standard life sentence should apply instead.
The mini-trial typically takes one day, maybe two.
The gruesome nature of this case has made jurors uncomfortable at times. While Paxton's autopsy photos were being shown, many jurors looked away or winced. The state alleges that Finnegan kidnapped Paxton, then hit her over the head with a baseball bat. After she was injured, they say he tied her up in his Oak Ridge bedroom with chains, dog collars and leashes, then repeatedly raped and tortured her.
Co-defendant and former girlfriend Rebecca Dishman has previously pleaded guilty to helping Finnegan. She testified at trial this week.
The chief medical examiner in the case said Paxton's cause of death was ligature strangulation, meaning a string or rope was wrapped around her neck.
The state alleges Finnegan used a shoestring and repeatedly choked Paxton over the course of several hours or days, letting her come close to death, releasing the string, and then choking her again.
Dishman told authorities that Finnegan straddled Paxton on the bed, strangled her and sometimes smoked a cigarette as he brought her close to death. He considered himself Dishman's master, testimony showed this week.
Finnegan's defense attorneys have countered that it was, in fact, Dishman who took the lead roles in the torture and killings. Dishman, who didn't work, spent the most time in the home while Paxton was alive and held captive, they argue.
Authorities say Finnegan kept Paxton's body for months in a rented freezer in his bedroom closet. When the police closed in on him in August 2020, he moved Paxton's body from the freezer to under his bed, hoping investigators wouldn't find her.
Police, however, found her cold body while executing a search warrant early Aug. 6, 2020. By that point, Dishman had fled the apartment and sought help to free herself of Finnegan, testimony showed.
The prosecution believes Paxton died sometime around Christmas 2019. Finnegan rented the freezer shortly thereafter and kept the body there for his sexual pleasure, the prosecution alleges.
Paxton suffered dozens, if not hundreds, of wounds that were inflicted before, during and after her death, according to testimony. Her body was sliced with a sharp knife repeatedly. Her throat had been slit, the areola of one of her breasts was removed, and her nose was removed. She had slices on her chest, arms, wrists, hands, abdomen, pelvis, back and buttocks. She also suffered several blunt force trauma injuries.
It's unclear how long the jury will deliberate. They will not convene tomorrow. If Finnegan is found guilty Saturday, the mini-trial to decide punishment would likely start Monday.