OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — Update (8/21): An Anderson County jury reached a verdict Wednesday and sentenced Sean Finnegan to death in the 2019 murder of Jennifer Paxton.
Finnegan was sentenced to die by lethal injection, which is Tennessee's primary method of carrying out the death penalty per state law. The jury said several factors in the case showed his actions were heinous and cruel enough to warrant the death penalty and that Finnegan had mutilated Paxton's body after her death.
Given the length of the appeals process in death penalty cases, Finnegan may very well die on death row before his execution. The defense argued that point on Tuesday during the sentencing hearing. Tennessee also has yet to resume executions after Gov. Bill Lee halted lethal injections in April 2022 over issues discovered with state protocol and testing.
The court was awaiting the jury to formally announce their sentencing verdict after the judge sent them back twice to fix issues he noted in the verdict forms.
After the verdict was read, Paxton's friends and family embraced each other.
Finnegan was stone-faced as the judge read his verdict. After the hearing was over, he spoke briefly with his lawyers before leaving.
You can watch the full verdict hearing below:
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Original Story:
A jury will continue deliberating on Wednesday in the Sean Finnegan trial to determine if he will face the death penalty.
The court met Tuesday to determine if Finnegan would face capital punishment in Jennifer Paxton's murder in 2019.
Testimony began around 10 a.m. and wrapped up in the early afternoon, The jury spent a few hours deliberating before the judge sent them to be sequestered for another night around 5:30 p.m.
During closing arguments on Tuesday, the state asked the jury to choose the maximum sentence for Finnegan, which is death. Prosecutors argued he showed no mercy to Paxton.
"I ask you give him the same amount of mercy that he gave her," prosecutor Kevin Allen said.
The defense asked the jury to consider that Finnegan is guaranteed to spend the rest of his life in prison because the only alternative to the death sentence for him was life without the possibility of parole. The defense said Finnegan would still be able to contribute to society while incarcerated.
"His life is effectively over, but we think that he can go on and still function and be helpful. He has job skills, and you heard from Ms. Mundy and Ms. Miller that he's a reliable guy. He's dependable and he's a hard worker, and we think that counts for something," defense attorney Forrest Wallace said.
Finnegan was found guilty on Monday of first-degree felony murder in Paxton's death. He was also found guilty of criminally negligent homicide, multiple aggravated kidnapping charges, attempted aggravated rape, aggravated rape, two conspiracy charges, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. He was found not guilty on two charges of conspiracy to commit premeditated murder and aggravated rape with bodily injury. It took the jury nearly 12 hours to deliberate a verdict.
The Capital Murder Trial
The trial started Aug. 12 in Clinton with jury selection. Lawyers in the case and the judge had screened hundreds of potential panelists in the lead-up to the death penalty trial, a rare event in Tennessee.
Finnegan is accused of kidnapping Jennifer Paxton, 35, of Knoxville, in December 2019, holding her captive in his Oak Ridge apartment, raping her repeatedly, abusing her, beating her and ultimately strangling her to death. His live-in girlfriend and co-defendant, Rebecca Dishman, has already pleaded guilty to murder and testified at his trial last week.
The jury has to sort through more than a dozen counts, from murder to abuse of a corpse. Within the counts are alternative offenses they can consider.
If they convict Finnegan of first-degree murder, they'll shift to a second, punishment phase of the trial at which they'll consider if he should be put to death.
The prosecution argues Finnegan should be executed for what he did to Paxton. After killing her, he put her body in a freezer he rented and stored it in the closet of his bedroom.
He kept her there for months, according to the prosecution, viewing her body for his sexual pleasure. Dishman knew what he'd done to her and was present during the rapes and abuse, according to court testimony.
By the summer of 2020, Dishman wanted to get away from the apartment and Finnegan, according to testimony. As she fled Aug. 5, 2020, with a neighbor, she confided about Paxton in the freezer, leading to a call to the authorities.
Finnegan confronted the neighbor's husband about stepping in to help Dishman. Oak Ridge police responded, and alerted about a body in the freezer, questioned Finnegan.
He denied it.
Realizing he was about to be discovered, Finnegan removed the body from the freezer and hid it under the bed, according to the prosecution. Oak Ridge police still found it during a search of his home.
The trial has featured graphic and disturbing testimony about how the killers treated Paxton in life and death. For Finnegan, she was the perfect victim, prosecutor Kevin Allen told jurors on Friday. She was addicted to drugs, homeless and had to sell her body to get money.
Defense attorney Kit Rodgers throughout the trial has pushed the jury to remember Dishman and her role in Paxton's abuse and death. It was Dishman who spent the most time with the victim, he said. It was Dishman who controlled the relationship with Finnegan, he argued Friday.
And it was Dishman, he said, who made Finnegan the fall guy when she was ready to end the relationship.