ANDERSON COUNTY, Tenn. — Jurors were shown physical evidence Wednesday from the crime scene on the second day of Sean Finnegan's Oak Ridge capital murder trial.
Prosecutors say Finnegan in late 2019 kidnapped Jennifer Paxton of Knoxville, then raped and tortured her repeatedly over a period of days, before murdering her and putting her body in a freezer. The state says the murder happened sometime around Christmas 2019. Investigators discovered the body in August 2020 under Finnegan’s bed, where he had moved her.
That freezer was brought into the courthouse Wednesday and put directly in front of jurors. The prosecution opened the freezer and allowed them to look inside.
Several jurors actually stood up out of their seats and peered into it.
The prosecution introduced several other pieces of evidence Wednesday, showing the jury metal chains, dog collars and padlocks they say Finnegan used on Paxton.
The prosecution also showed bedsheets found under the bed in Finnegan's room, as well as a black plastic bag that the state says Finnegan wrapped the victim's body in.
Throughout the afternoon, several officers from the Oak Ridge Police Department and the Anderson County Sheriff's Office took the stand.
Marvell Moore with ORPD's criminal investigations unit described finding Paxton's body under Finnegan's bed during a search of his house.
ORPD had obtained a search warrant for Finnegan's house in August 2020, after Finnegan's then-girlfriend Rebecca Dishman told police there was a body in a freezer inside their home.
Moore said he went upstairs to the master bedroom during the search, and found a freezer in the closet. But when he opened it, all it contained was Red Baron pizza boxes and some burritos.
The room was spotless, which he found suspicious, he said. He turned around, and could see something under the bed.
Moore leaned down and put his hand under the bed and felt something solid and ice cold. That's when he called for other officers and alerted them that he might have found a body.
Moore said Paxton was wrapped in a black plastic bag and seemed to be in the fetal position. The plastic bag covered her lower body, but her upper body was exposed.
Moore said Paxton's nose was missing. Dishman testified Tuesday that Finnegan cut off Paxton's nose after the killing.
While being shown the evidence, several members of the jury were visibly disturbed. Some looked away, and one man covered his mouth and winced.
Earlier Wednesday morning, several of Finnegan and Dishman's neighbors at the time of the murder testified. Their immediate neighbor testified that she heard a commotion around Christmas time in 2019, like a fight.
She then said she could hear noises coming from Finnegan's upstairs bedroom--a bed hitting the wall, as if people were having sex. This lasted for several days, she said.
But in the defense's cross examination, attorney Kit Rodgers questioned why she wouldn't have called police if she had heard such a loud commotion next door. The witness said she thought it was a dispute between Dishman and Finnegan and that it wasn't her business.
The state also called Mahogany Pekoc to the stand, who was also a neighbor of Dishman and Finnegan at the time. Pekoc said she and Dishman had become friends, and she eventually saw Dishman with bruises on her.
Pekoc said she asked Dishman if Finnegan was abusing her, and Dishman said yes. Pekoc and her husband arranged for Dishman to go to a women's shelter. Pekoc said Dishman told her that Finnegan had forced her to perform sexual acts with children they had looked after in the past, that Finnegan had wanted to kidnap someone else--a teenager-- and that there was a body in their freezer.
Pekoc told her husband, Colt, who called police. The husband also testified. After Finnegan found out that Dishman had left him to go to a shelter, Colt Pekoc said Finnegan came to his house and threatened to kill him.
During cross examination of an ORPD patrolman who responded to Pekoc's call to police, the defense pointed out that in the audio recording of the police response, Colt Pekoc doesn't tell officers that Finnegan had threatened to kill him.
On the audio recording, Pekoc did, however, tell the officer that Finnegan had threatened him.
Trial resumes 9 a.m. Thursday in Clinton. The state will continue to call witnesses to the stand.
